Shanghai Underworld Undercover
by ThrowbackTuesday
Summary: When his jinchuu stretches out longer than he anticipated, Enishi is forced to take Kaoru back with him to Shanghai.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Rurouni Kenshin was created by Nobuhiro Watsuki. This fanfiction was written purely for fun.

Note: This story is very heavily an Enishi/Kaoru pairing and, although set in the same time period as the manga, deviates far from the original plot. If you are a Kenshin/Kaoru fan or if alternative pairings and non-cannon storylines made you sad, then don't read this.

Enishi frowned as he reread the report on the desk in front of him. He wished that he could focus all of his mind on his personal matters at the moment, but the syndicate headquarters in Shanghai insisted on sending him regular updates on their business even after he had made it clear that he was leaving the syndicate after he had concluded his jinchuu.

He had to admit, though, he did not think at first that his jinchuu would last this long. When he had left the puppet of Kaoru's likeness for Battousai to find, he had expected the former hitokiri to either kill himself in grief or to find out about the deception and come find him to settle the score right away. He did not think that the man would withdraw into himself and exile himself in Rakinumura. Although that was still acceptable, it was inconclusive, and he was still waiting for Battousai's life to end.

It was now a month that had passed, and Battousai appeared to be resolute in his exile. Even the girl he had abducted had stopped moping and waiting for any sort of rescue. Truly, after the first week, she had stopped looking out the window waiting for a ship to come. Instead, she had taken to doing mundane things around the house such as cooking, cleaning, and washing clothes. Enishi thought it was a welcome change, for having seen the forlorn look on her face reminded him too much of his sister after Kiyosato Akira's death. He knew Kamiya Kaoru was just trying to keep herself busy to pass the time, and he quietly obliged her by providing her a bokken so she would able to do some training on her own, and he had also scrounged up some Japanese books in his library so she could also read. He was mildly surprised at himself for these small acts of kindness, but he rationalized it by thinking that it was better to have her do something useful than pine for Battousai.

It was because she was reading one of his books that she was with him in his library. She was reclined on the couch by the window, reading through a book on Japanese swords, occasionally looking up to stare out at the mild afternoon. From time to time, Enishi caught her glancing at him, but she hadn't done anything to disturb him so he did not see any point in sending her out of the room while he worked.

Enishi turned his mind on the task at hand and his eyes narrowed as he read the report for the third time. _Those useless fools. I leave Shanghai for two months and already they can't get a handle on that drug deal. If they allow those middlemen to dictate the prices, soon they will be losing much more than their bargaining power._

He set the report aside, his frown deepening. There were others in the syndicate who were capable of being as forceful as him. He wondered why they couldn't be as good an enforcer as he was.

"Everything all right, Enishi?"

He turned his turquoise eyes on the girl. Kamiya. Since she had come to the island, she had taken to calling him by his given name though he insisted on addressing her formally himself. He did not bother to correct her, he honestly did not mind. She treated him with enough respect and formality and kept the right amount of distance from him. He was surprised and a little relieved that she seemed to know his moods. She knew when to leave him alone, and she knew when he welcomed a little conversation.

"The syndicate in Shanghai is having some problems," he said. "No doubt they will be asking me to come back, although I already made it clear I was planning to leave by the time I finish my personal affairs here."

She set aside the book. "I thought you were the boss?" she asked.

"In Japan, yes, because I handle all the syndicate's affairs here," he said. "But in Shanghai, I answer to someone higher up than me."

"I see," she said, biting her lip. "What happens if you do get called back?"

He stood up, scraping his chair back, and walked to the window. It was a possibility. "I would have to go back. If the syndicate falls apart before I finish jinchuu, the rest of my assets will disappear as well, and I need to protect them."

Kaoru gazed at him. "What about me?" she asked.

"Battousai will have to snap out of his stupor and move before I need to go back to Shanghai," he said testily. "If not…. I'll have to take you with me."

She gasped at this, and he couldn't help but feel a little sympathy for her. She had not expected to get abducted, and certainly did not expect to be away for as long as a month. Now there was a possibility of her being taken to a different country.

He looked down at her. "I will still return you to Tokyo, I fully intend to do so, but not until jinchuu is completed."

"I know," she said.

He nodded. It was strange, how she trusted his words. For all intents and purposes, he was her enemy. He was going to kill the man she loved, he had orchestrated events to hurt her friends, he had kidnapped her and held her prisoner on this island. However, in spite of all that, she had not raged at him. Instead, she had started to talk to him, short conversations, and after that Enishi realized how she could have allowed Battousai into her home. The woman was truly altruistic, with not a bad bone in her entire body.

They looked at each other in silence for a while, until Kaoru broke off eye contact. "I'll get started on dinner," she murmured.

"Don't bother," he said, nodding towards the horizon where he spied a small dot on the horizon. It was the ship their syndicate used. "Some of my people are arriving shortly. They will have brought food."

Kaoru looked out at the approaching ship as well. "All this, just so you wouldn't have to endure my cooking?" she teased half-heartedly.

Enishi's mouth twisted into a small smile. She had much to learn in terms of the culinary arts. "Of course. I endure it more than enough for the rest of the week." Then he turned serious. "When they arrive, confine yourself in your room. I will bring you food after we have concluded our business."

A flash of irritation crossed her face, but she did not protest vocally. _She knows her place,_ Enishi thought with satisfaction.

He returned to his desk and proceeded to put away the papers that littered its surface, pulling them all into one pile. Kaoru took this as a sign that Enishi was preparing for the arrival of his men, so she took her book and, with a small bow to Enishi, left the library.

Enishi waited until the ship docked by the island. With his sharp eyes, he saw that it was not who he expected it to be. He was expecting Wu Heishin, the other man in the syndicate who had accompanied him to Japan. Instead, the figure emerging from the ship was that of a tall man. _It's Lei,_ he thought.

Enishi went out of the house to meet the newcomer. Lei Feng Bai was one of the senior members of the syndicate, and handled the weapons division. He was tall, with a build similar to Enishi's, except he was less muscular. He was an exceptional fighter as well, using a traditional Chinese sword to fight. He was also a sensible person, and Enishi was certain that he had no reason to fear for Kaoru's safety from Lei.

"Enishi," Lei said when he came within earshot.

"Lei," Enishi said in greeting. "I didn't expect to see you here."

"Ming sent me," Lei said, referring to the syndicate's Shanghai boss. "He figured if it was Heishin who came to talk to you, you would just send him away."

"I would," Enishi agreed.

They fell into step beside each other as they made their way into the house. "How is your personal matter coming along?" Lei asked.

"Why are you here, really?" Enishi asked pointedly. "I care not for the small talk."

Lei sighed. "The syndicate is having problems. Ming keeps sending you reports, I'm sure you've read them."

"He wants me back in Shanghai?"

"Yes."

Enishi swore under his breath. "Can you not handle it yourselves?"

Lei ran a hand through his jet black hair. "Someone keeps hitting our drug factories. Already, we have lost a lot of money and resources. With you and Heishin here, nobody is helping Ming with transferring the money around to keep the other businesses of the syndicate afloat. Ming thinks this is a direct attack on the syndicate, an attempt to destroy us, so he is asking if you could come back until it is resolved. He said it would be the last thing he asks of you."

They reached the house, and as they crossed its foyer, Lei held up a package. "I even brought you food to help soften you up," he said with a hint of amusement in his voice.

Enishi took the package and placed it in the kitchen. He leaned against the counter, arms crossed, thinking of everything Lei had said. "I suppose I could go back, finish all the work there," he said, knowing he did not have a choice. If the syndicate went down, he would lose a lot of his money as well, and he needed that money to start over in Japan. "However…" He looked out the window into the night, thinking about Kaoru.

"What?" Lei asked.

"I have a girl with me, Kamiya, part of my plan for my revenge," Enishi said. "I'll have to take her with me to Shanghai."

Lei looked guarded. "You know Ming hates bringing outsiders into headquarters. Can you not leave her here with Heishin or his bodyguards?"

Enishi scoffed. "He will have to tolerate it if he wants me back. I cannot leave Kamiya here alone, or with anyone else." Thinking of leaving Kaoru alone with Heishin made Enishi cringe inwardly. That would be the death of the girl.

"Well, I suppose you can," Lei said after a while. "I don't think anybody could tell you what you can or cannot do, anyway. And you know Ming, all he is interested in are results, so if you could help him with this problem I think it will be fine."

Enishi said nothing more as he opened the package Lei had brought. It was a bento box, filled with several different kinds of sushi. He was feeling hungry, and at the back of his mind he knew Kaoru would be hungry as well.

"Kamiya!" he yelled, not wanting to walk up the stairs to knock on Kaoru's bedroom door. His voice was loud in the quiet house. "Kitchen!"

Lei looked unsurprised at Enishi's brusqueness. "Ming wants us to leave right away," he said. "As in, tonight."

"When I am ready," Enishi said with a finality in his tone. "We will need to dock at Yokohama, I need to leave instructions with Heishin regarding my plans. Then we will take a ship to Shanghai from there."

They were interrupted by Kaoru's arrival, an irate expression on her face for being called so rudely. "What were you yelling at me for?" she asked, her hands fisted at her sides.

Enishi nodded to the bento box. "There's food. I thought you'd be hungry."

She paused at his unexpected thoughtfulness, and Enishi hid a smile. He liked knowing that he could still throw her off-balance when she least expected it. Kaoru eyed the bento box, then for the first time, she rested her eyes on Lei.

"This is Lei, one of my associates," Enishi said, gesturing to Lei.

"Kamiya Kaoru," she murmured, walking over to the table to take some of the sushi for herself.

Enishi watched as Lei's dark eyes sized up Kaoru with interest as soon as Kaoru shifted her attention to the food, and he bristled. He stared hard at Lei, until the weapons merchant realized Enishi was telling him to back off the girl. Lei stood up straight and held his hands up to Enishi, as if to say he was keeping his hands off.

"Have you sorted out your business?" Kaoru asked him, unaware of the silent exchange that had taken place.

"We will have to go to Shanghai," Enishi said, not bothering to beat around the bush.

Kaoru almost choked on her food. "What?"

"You heard me right the first time," he said dryly.

She let out a breath, setting down her chopsticks. "How long will I be there?"

"I don't know," he answered honestly.

She bit her lip, and Enishi knew this as a sign that she was trying not to cry _._ "I guess I don't really have a choice, do I?" she asked rhetorically, her voice wavering dangerously.

"No," Enishi affirmed. Then he gave her a way out of the kitchen. "Go pack your things. We will be leaving tonight. You can take the bento box with you, I'm not hungry."

Kaoru threw him one last look before taking the box in both hands and exiting the kitchen. Enishi looked after her and weighed his options. It didn't take him long. _There is no way I am leaving her alone with anyone. She is too important in my plans._

Lei was also looking after her as well. When she was safely out of earshot, the Chinese gave a low whistle. "Enishi, you lucky man. You're holed up in this island alone for a month with that woman?"

"She's an important part of my revenge, Lei. She's off limits," he said curtly.

"I'm sensible enough to stay away," Lei told him. "But if you're taking her with you to Shanghai, it might be better to tell people she's your exclusive whore. They'll be sure to stay away that way."

Enishi contemplated this. Lei was right about that. "I might," he said. Then he turned businesslike again. "I need a few hours to collect my things."

"I'll be waiting on the ship," Lei said, turning to leave the house. "Please try to hurry. If we make it to Yokohama by tomorrow, we can leave for Shanghai within two days."


	2. Chapter 2

Kaoru took another kimono from her closet and folded it carefully. She did not have much things to pack, she only had about four sets of kimonos, and a couple of gi and hakamas and some night dresses that Enishi had gotten for her during her month-long stay on the island.

She thought about how much further and further from her home she was going to be, and another fresh set of tears appeared from her eyes. She brushed these away impatiently, hating herself for being so close to crying. Just when she had settled down in the island, accepting the daily routine she and Enishi had, he springs this new surprise on her.

 _It's not so bad when I'm here, at least I'm still in Japan and I know sooner or later my friends are going to find me, but what about China,_ she thought, setting all her clothes on the bed. _Will they still look for me when I'm no longer in Japan?_

The door to her room opened, and Enishi walked in. He handed her a traveling bag for her to put her clothes in, and he glanced at the tear stains on her cheeks.

"Thank you," she said quietly, taking the bag from him. "I know you didn't have any dinner, there's still some of that sushi left, I didn't finish it all," she said, nodding to the bento box on her bedside table.

"When we get to China," Enishi said slowly, fixing his eyes on her. "You have to understand two things. First, the syndicate does not really welcome strangers into its headquarters. When we get there, you will not be as free to move about as you are here."

Kaoru started placing her clothes into the bag. "I expected that," she said, sighing. "I hope you don't have to keep me tied up and blind-folded, though," she said sarcastically.

"I might keep you gagged if you make ridiculous comments like that," he replied with as much sarcasm as her.

She shoved another kimono into the bag. "I've tried my best to be a good captive, in case you haven't noticed. I haven't really given you much trouble at all."

"I noticed," he told her, continuing to watch her pack. "I've tried to be a good host as well."

"You mean captor," she corrected him.

He pressed his lips together into a thin line. "Yes, captor," he agreed. "I could have been much less kind to you."

Kaoru sighed as she finished packing her few things and she sat down on the bed, burying her face in her hands. Enishi was right. He had been kind to her. Except for that one time she tried to escape, he had never laid a hand on her or touched her with malicious intent. "I know that as well," she said. "Look, Enishi, I know I can't do anything, I am at your mercy. So I'll go along with whatever you need me to do, just keep your promise to return me to Tokyo one day."

"You'll go along?" he repeated.

"Yes."

"Good, because there is one other thing about the syndicate you should know." He paused. "It's full of people who usually just take what they want. You didn't notice the way Lei was looking at you tonight with interest, did you?"

She gasped, her head jerking up to look at him. He smirked. "I thought so," he continued. "To them, you are just another woman, and people there, they take women all the time."

Kaoru felt her skin crawl at his words. "You can't let them…"

"I won't," he said, cutting her off. "I'm going to tell them you're my woman."

 _He's what?_ She looked at him, her eyebrows rising skeptically. "I'm you're woman?" she repeated.

"Because nobody there would dare take anything from me," he said, explaining his point. "You said you'll go along."

Kaoru closed the bag and dumped it on the floor. "This is getting weirder and weirder by the minute," she muttered. _First, he's taking me to China. Then he's going to keep me prisoner there. Then he's going to tell everyone I'm his whore. But if it's to keep them away, if it's to keep me safe… as long as he doesn't really touch me…_

"I will," she said, standing up and rubbing her arms. "Just… you have to understand, it's going to be a new country for me, people speaking in a language I don't understand… you have to understand how it makes me feel."

"Don't worry," he said. "You are still my charge. I will look after you."

She gazed at him as he said that, feeling her heart twist at the words. Kenshin used to say those words to her, and here she was with his enemy who was saying the exact same thing. What made her heart twist, though, was that she _believed_ Enishi as she locked eyes with him. _I trust him_ , she realized. Suddenly, her tears were gone, and she did not feel like crying anymore.

"Then I will trust you," she said finally.

His eyes softened a bit at her words. He stooped to pick up her bag. "Let's go. Lei is already waiting on the ship."

It took them a day to get to Yokohama, and while on the syndicate ship, Kaoru kept to her quarters, only going out to eat in the mess hall whenever Enishi came to fetch her at her cabin during mealtimes. She was the only woman on the ship, and she understood what Enishi meant when he said it was better if he made it seem as if she belonged to him. It only took a quiet glare from him to send each sailor having a look at her to turn away.

When they reached Yokohama, Enishi rented a room at an inn for them and left her promptly for a few hours, reminding her in not so many words that he could easily find her if she dared escape. She gave her word that she was going to stay where she was.

As Kaoru sat on the bed and looked out the window, she thought about giving him the slip, but it only lasted a fraction of a second. She had given him her word, and she was not interested in getting herself into more trouble than she was at the moment. Enishi was not one to bluff. If he had said he could find her easily, then he could. Had she dared to even open her door, she would have found Lei standing guard outside as ordered by Enishi.

So Kaoru spent her afternoon confined in her room, looking through a Japanese-Chinese language book that Enishi had handed to her while they were on the ship to Yokohama. She couldn't help but smile at the memory. It was those little random acts of kindness that made it impossible for her to hate him.

When she had first seen Enishi when he had come to her dojo to pick a fight with Kenshin, she thought he was just another crazy man bent on destroying the strongest man from the Bakumatsu. After spending a month with him on the island, she caught glimpses of his loneliness and the sense of loss he had regarding his sister. When he wasn't in a rage over Kenshin, he was actually polite to her, and his attention to detail made it possible for him to sense her needs and provide for her without her even asking him. After a few days on the island, she had found a bokken in her room, several gis and hakamas and a pair of training sandals in her closet. When she had ventured into his library filled with Chinese books, she found that he had placed some Japanese volumes on the couch for her to peruse. Perhaps the funniest thing about it was when, after a several days of cooking for him, she found several cookbooks on the reading table as well.

Kaoru chuckled at the memory. She rolled onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. It was too bad that Enishi had a tragic time growing up. If he had lived under different circumstances, he could have been a good man. _He would definitely be more useful around the house than Sano,_ she thought ruefully. _But Enishi is not completely bad. I could feel some good in him. If he could still feel love for his sister, then he is not completely lost._

Wrapped up in thoughts about her captor, she drifted off to sleep.

End of chapter.

Note: Disclaimer can be found at the beginning of chapter one. This is a short chapter, I have several more written down but I think I will post one chapter a week just to let my writing catch up. I have the entire story in my head already, until the ending, it's keeping me up at night, but it takes long for me to translate the plot into words and chapters. Thank you for reading. I hope you had a lovely time.

Also, the title, I'll fill it in after I've finished the story. :p


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Enishi returned to the inn a few hours later to find Lei sitting on a chair outside Kaoru's bedroom door, looking out the window and looking completely bored. "Lei," he said sharply.

Lei snapped to attention. "You're back," he said. "You've spoken with Heishin?"

"Yes, I told him to clean up the island and to keep tabs on things here." Enishi reached into his pocket and held out a boat ticket. "Your ticket to Shanghai."

Lei took it and peered at it. "Suite rooms. Excellent," he said, dropping it into the breast pocket of his western shirt.

Enishi eyed the door. "No problems while I was gone?"

Lei shook his head. "Didn't even look out the door. She's a really good prisoner. If she keeps this up in Shanghai, you won't have to worry about anything at all," he said, laughing.

"That's doubtful," Enishi muttered. "Ship leaves in a few hours. We will meet you on board."

He walked into the room and closed the door behind him. Kaoru was asleep on the bed, the Japanese-Chinese book he gave her clutched in one hand. He walked over to the bed and sat down, gazing at the sleeping girl. She had agreed to his plans without putting up much resistance. Each time she did something nice for him, he felt obliged to do something nice for her in return, thus the Japanese-Chinese book.

 _If she keeps this up, she's going to turn me into a nice guy,_ he thought irritably. He was a naturally mean person, it was the persona he had built while clawing his way up the syndicate, and in dealing with people he usually had to remind himself to be nice. He found it unsettling that Kaoru had the opposite effect on him: with her, he had to remind himself to be mean.

"Kamiya," he said. When she didn't stir, he reached out to touch her arm. "Kamiya," he said again, giving her a gentle shake.

She finally stirred, opening her eyes. "Enishi," she murmured. "You're back."

"I have our tickets to Shanghai," he said. "Ship leaves in a few hours. We have enough time to get dinner."

She sat up and smoothed down her kimono. She was wearing a blue and silver kimono that he had gotten her a month ago. It brought out the color in her eyes. _She looks good in it, too good,_ he thought. _She would sell for a high price in China. I should have gotten her plainer clothes._

"Where are we having dinner?" she asked.

"Across the street, there's a restaurant," he said.

They walked across the street, with him guiding her through the evening crowd with a light hand at her back. Once they had seated themselves at a table, he ordered for both of them.

"Where is Lei?" she asked him as they waited for their food.

"I dismissed him when I got back. I had him guarding your door while I was gone."

She was surprised. "I didn't know that."

He eyed her. "I was worried you might try and escape again."

"I told you, I'll go along," she reminded him. "You promised you would return me to Tokyo, and I believe that, so I feel no need to run away."

Enishi nodded. It was good that she thought that way. If she had tried to escape again, he would have had to punish her, and he already knew from past experience that lifting his hand against her caused him too much discomfort.

Their food arrived, and they ate in silence, not wishing to compete with the noise in the restaurant. Enishi watched her as she ate her rice bowl. She would occasionally glance around the restaurant before returning to her food.

After they were done eating, they checked out of the inn and headed for the pier. Enishi scanned the ships on the dock and located the one that would take them to Shanghai. "That's our ship," he said, nodding to the vessel as his hands were full with carrying both of their bags.

Making their way through the crowd, Kaoru reached out to wrap a hand around his left arm to keep herself from being separated from him. Enishi welcomed the gesture, he was not so keen on losing her in the crowd. When they neared the steward that was checking tickets, he leaned close to her ear. "Get the tickets, they're in my right jacket pocket."

She practically jumped as his breath tickled her ear, and he chuckled softly. He couldn't put his finger on it, but she seemed more and more jittery as they boarded the ship. She reached over to pluck the tickets from his pocket and promptly gave them to the steward, who gave them directions to their room.

They reached their room, which was a suite room that contained two separate double beds. Enishi had debated with himself earlier if he needed separate rooms for them, but knowing how many people would be on the ship, he opted to keep Kaoru as close to him as possible. He knew he had enough self-control not to take advantage of the girl. Besides, he respected her and himself too much to do that. As for Kaoru, if she found it uncomfortable to share a room with him, she would just have to deal with that.

He watched her as she took in the two beds. Her face was unreadable. After a moment, Enishi strode over to one of the beds and dumped her traveling bag on it. "I would rather have you in my sight all the time," he explained when she didn't say anything. "There are a lot of strangers on trips like these."

"I'm not exactly keen on wandering around the ship by myself anyway," she said, sitting down on her bed.

Enishi shrugged off his jacket and put it away in the closet. He laid his watou beside his bed as he sat down. He took a careful look around the room. It was a decent enough size, with two double beds separated by a night table. One end of the room had a door that led to the toilet and bath, the other end, the one nearer his bed, had the door that led outside. In the wall opposite the beds was a couch with an ottoman, and in one corner there was an ornate writing desk.

Within the hour, they felt the ship start to move. Enishi looked over at Kaoru, who was leafing over her language book. "You're not interested in saying goodbye to Japan's coastline?" he asked.

She looked up. "No," she answered.

"It's a long journey to Shanghai. Surely you don't intend to spend all of the time here in the room?"

"That's what I fully intend to do," she said resolutely.

He raised an eyebrow at this. _Why is she being so passive now?_ He pressed on. "We need to take a walk around the ship."

She was puzzled. "What for?"

"So we know our way around in case something happens," he said.

"Do I need to come with you?"

"Yes," he said, exasperation leaking into his voice.

"Oh, all right," she said, putting her book away.

They exited the room, and walked out onto the deck. There were few people walking around, and Enishi could not see Lei anywhere. _Probably resting in his room._ Since it wasn't very crowded, Enishi did not feel the need to steer Kaoru by her back or her elbow. He was serious when he told Kaoru they needed to familiarize themselves with the ship. It was going to be their environment for the next few days and it always helped to be prepared.

They rounded a corner that led to another row of cabins. Enishi pointed to one of the doors. "That's Lei's room," he said. "If we get separated and you couldn't come back to our room for some reason, you can go to Lei's room."

Kaoru hesitated. "Is… is Lei all right?" she asked.

"Yes," he answered after a while. "He will not double-cross me. He understands Japanese, so communication will not be a problem."

"How many people are there in your organization?" she asked.

He considered this. He might as well tell her, since she was going to meet them anyway. "Our organization has a lot of employees, but there are only a handful of bosses," he said as they continued walking. "The principal is Ming. He's the boss in Shanghai."

"The one who asked you to come back," she said.

"Yes, that one," he affirmed. "I'm the second-in-command. I oversee all the other divisions of the organization, and manage the flow of money. Wu Heishin is the small Chinese you saw once before on the island. He works immediately under me. I also work as the organization's enforcer, which means I do the dirty jobs to make sure people keep in line."

"Lei heads the weapons division. He works with a woman named Soong An, who also works as an enforcer when I am not available. Soong An and I used to be partners."

"Partners?" Kaoru echoed.

"In work," he said quickly lest she get the wrong idea. He groaned inwardly at the thought of being romantically involved with the woman whom he considered even crazier than him. "I was the arms dealer before I moved up in rank."

They came up to the dining hall, and Enishi stopped talking about the syndicate long enough to accost a waiter. The dining hall was large and had several private dining rooms available for interested parties who were willing to pay an additional price. Enishi pulled a note from his pocket and handed it to the waiter, telling him to have a small private dining room secured for their use for the duration of the entire trip.

After they had settled the business with the dining room, they wandered back out onto the deck. Enishi continued to talk. "Another person, and I think you will get along with her, is Mei. She is about my age. She is Ming's daughter. She heads the drugs division. She works with another person named Jiao. Mei handles the legal drugs, Jiao handles the illegal ones. Weapons and drugs are the two arms of the syndicate that rake in the money. We have two legal arms, silk and tea. Silk is headed by Cheng, and tea is headed by Yuan. We use the silk and tea trade as a legal front for the syndicate."

"I don't trust anybody, but of all those people, the ones that I know will not double-cross me are Lei, Mei and Yuan. Lei, because we have a mutual respect for each other. Mei is just Mei. She does her work, and she just does her work. Yuan, I saved his life twice so he owes me and he knows it. Ming won't cross me either, because Ming needs me."

"Sounds interesting," she murmured, gazing out into the sea. They were in open water now, and the breeze was starting to pick up and the waves were getting bigger.

"It's the life I grew up in," he said thoughtfully. He had never talked about the syndicate to anyone that didn't belong in it, but he felt no qualms in talking to Kaoru. He knew by now that she was not judgmental, and that even if she disagreed with his illegal activities, he would not be getting an earful of it. The worst she usually did was to give him a silent, disapproving look, which he had learned to ignore.

"Yet you said you were going to leave it eventually," she said.

"It was just a means to an end," he said, wishing that he could complete his jinchuu as soon as possible.

"What are you planning to do once jinchuu is finished?" she asked.

"I don't know," he answered honestly. "I have put away enough money to be comfortable for years without doing anything. I suppose I'll have to find something else I'm good at."

She was about to say something when the ship rode a giant wave and the deck tipped to the side for a brief moment. Kaoru gasped as her hand automatically shot out to grab the railing in front of her when she lost her balance. Enishi was just as quick to grab her by the waist and he pulled her to him, steadying her.

"Kamiya," he said when he felt her struggling against him. "Stop moving. This is fine. The ship just has to go through some rough water."

He held her to him firmly, and after a few seconds, he felt her ever so slightly lean against him. He felt a tremor go through her, and her hand was gripping the railing so tightly her knuckles were turning white.

"Are you frightened to be on a ship?" he asked her, finally figuring out why she was so jittery earlier.

"I… I didn't use to, but I had a bad experience before, I fell overboard during a storm," she said lamely.

He looked down at her, sensing that she wasn't telling him everything. "How can you just fall overboard a ship? You're not stupid enough to do that on your own."

"I was thrown overboard," she muttered so softly that he almost couldn't hear her. "By Shishio Makoto, when he was taunting Kenshin. Kenshin dove in after me, but he wasn't able to find me."

Enishi felt a stab of irritation. _She was thrown overboard because of Battousai. He couldn't protect her, he couldn't save her._ "How did you survive?"

"I don't know," she said. "All I know is I woke up in a clinic. Then the Oniwabanshu found me there."

"Well, nobody is going to throw you overboard this time," he said, releasing her from his hold as the ship leveled out. "And if you do turn out to be stupid enough to do so on your own… I'm a good swimmer. Just give a really good yell as you're falling down so I know to jump in." The corners of his mouth turned up in amusement.

Kaoru laughed shortly, releasing the railing from her death grip. "Enishi, you're terrible. I think I'll just stay away from the edge of the ship." She stepped back.

Enishi's face broke into a more open smile. "And that's why I say you're not stupid."

He followed her as they made their way back to their room. What she had just revealed made her even more interesting to him. He knew from his research that Kaoru had been put in the line of danger more than once simply by her association with Battousai. Perhaps the one that he remembered most was when she had been kidnapped by Jineh and her breathing muscles had been paralyzed, almost leading to her death. Battousai was able to save her that time. He did not know that Shishio had thrown her overboard a ship and the Battousai had been unable to save her. _He has already failed to save her once. She was spared death by some other means,_ he thought as they reached their room. _She is alive because some other people rescued her, not Battousai. Yet she continues to defend him even in his failure, and he continues to live in spite of it too. Even now, after I had taken Kamiya from him, he still clings to life. Must she truly die in order for me to have my jinchuu completed?_

He pondered over this as he lay down on the bed, gesturing to Kaoru that she could use the bathroom first. He frowned. He knew he wouldn't be able to kill the girl. On the contrary, he felt an inexplicable urge to protect her, partly because she reminded him of his sister, but mostly because her presence gave him a weird sense of serenity he had first felt on the island. _No matter, while I'm in Shanghai, jinchuu is on hold so I don't have to think about it for now._

Kaoru emerged from the bathroom in her night clothes. She glanced at him before quickly sliding in between the covers of her bed. Enishi counted to ten before getting up to use the bathroom himself, washing up and attending to his personal needs. After he was done, he returned to the room, stripping himself of his shirt before he climbed into his own bed. He reached over to turn the bedside lamp off, plunging the room in the darkness.

"Good night," Kaoru's tentative voice floated to him.

"Good night," he replied, settling back and letting the ship's gentle rocking motion lull him to sleep.

 **End of chapter.**

 **Thank you to everyone who put in reviews. It helps keep my creative juices flowing. As for Kaoru getting thrown overboard, that bit was from the movie. I put it in because I thought it was the one time that Kenshin wasn't able to save Kaoru and it had some implications in Enishi's jinchuu.**

 **I was too lazy to do research, sorry, but how many days does it take to sail from Yokohama to Shanghai in the 19** **th** **century? Anybody know?**

 **Next chapter will be up next week.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

Kaoru smoothed down her kimono as she walked the ship's corridor beside Enishi, mildly aware of his hand at the small of her back as he guided her to the dining hall for their breakfast. She had to admit that she was pleasantly surprised to find that Enishi was quite the gentleman even as they were sharing one room. He always let her use the bathroom first, and whenever they walked outside he always had a hand to her back. He opened doors for her and pulled out chairs for her. It was a change from all the buso remarks she had been getting from Yahiko. Of course he also had a stern glare that kept everyone else at a polite distance from them.

Lei was an enjoyable surprise as well. He spoke Japanese quite decently, and his temper was milder than Enishi's. There was a time that he had found Kaoru reading her language book, and without her asking him to, he went on and gave her a brief lesson on how to speak some Chinese phrases such as good morning, good night, please and thank you.

"We should be expecting to arrive in Shanghai in a day," Enishi said as they entered the private dining room that they had been using for the entire trip.

Kaoru's heart fluttered in nervousness. She had no idea what to expect when she meets the rest of Enishi's syndicate. She merely cleared her throat and nodded. He seemed to sense her unease as he pulled out a chair for her, for he spoke again. "It will be fine," he said.

Lei was already at their table, eating a bowl of what looked like porridge. Kaoru gave him a small smile as she slid into her seat. "Good morning, Lei," she said in halting Chinese.

"Good morning," Lei replied, grinning.

Enishi raised an eyebrow as he took his own seat. "Exactly how much Chinese have you actually taught her?"

"Just the basics," Lei answered, shrugging. "Things she might use everyday, like 'thank you' or 'please', and 'I'm hungry'. I haven't been able to teach her yet how to say 'Enishi kidnapped me and took me here can you please help me get back to Tokyo'." Lei laughed.

Enishi scowled, and Kaoru smiled again. Seeing Lei tease Enishi made her see the latter in a more ordinary light, though she was aware that Lei was always careful not to overstep a certain line when it came to his senior. If the rest of the people in Enishi's syndicate were like Lei, she didn't think it would be as terrible as she had first imagined.

"At the rate I'm going with learning Chinese, I think Enishi will be returning me to Tokyo long before I master that," Kaoru said.

Lei shook his head, pointing his spoon at Kaoru but looking at Enishi. "She's smart, she'll learn it quickly enough," he said.

"I don't doubt that," Enishi said, helping himself to a piece of bread and coating it with a generous amount of butter.

Kaoru felt her cheeks grow warm at the subtle compliment and she busied herself with getting a serving of fruits in season. The ship had a varied menu everyday, and she got to try other kinds of food she did not normally have at home. "I just want to learn enough to know that you're not selling me on the street when we get there, Enishi," she said lightly.

"Hm," Lei said, finishing his porridge and fixing his black eyes on her. "You would fetch a high price too, the way you are. You look… fresh."

"Kamiya, you are _not_ going to get sold on the street," Enishi said, rolling his eyes. "You are going to be with me."

Lei sat back on his chair. "I see," he said. He pointed a finger at both of them. "Are you going to tell Ming she's your who-"

Kaoru bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from smiling when she saw the death glare Enishi shot Lei just to keep him from completing his sentence. "Ming knows I don't take in whores," Enishi said. "I'm going to tell him Kamiya is my intended."

Kaoru spit out the watermelon seed in her mouth onto her plate as Lei let out a huge shout of laughter. "Your _intended?_ " she gasped.

"Enishi!" Lei exclaimed. "It's fine, but you have to make it believable. You've been with Kaoru for more than a month and you still call her by her surname, for goodness' sake."

"I'm aware of that," Enishi snapped, starting to lose his temper.

"You have to be more… amorous," Lei said. "You have to look at her more, talk to her more, hold her hand-"

"Lei, shut up," Enishi said, cutting him off.

Those three words sent Lei straight to silence, but he was still shaking his head. After a while, though, he spoke again. "Enishi, I don't want her to get into trouble with the organization. She's been good to you in spite of her situation, and…" His voice trailed off when he saw the look on Enishi's face. "Well we've got at least a day before we arrive in Shanghai. I know you'll figure it out."

Having had his say, Lei stood up and left them alone in the dining room. Kaoru risked a look at Enishi as she reached out to pour herself a cup of tea. He was silent, though she could see annoyance written all over his face. After she had a sip, she looked at Enishi again. "Would you like some tea?" she asked, surprised that her voice was steady.

"Lei likes you," he said. "You seem to have that effect on people."

She shrugged. "I was surprised to find him amiable," she said. She poured him a cup of tea and slid the cup to him. "I don't mind whatever you tell your boss. I know it's just going to be a cover story."

"Thank you, Kaoru," he said, eyeing her as he raised his cup to his lips.

Her breath caught as she heard him call her by her given name. His deep voice going through every syllable sounded almost sensual. She let out her breath slowly. "I just want to make one thing clear, Enishi," she said sternly, meeting his eyes. "You may put your arm around my shoulder, or even hold my hand to keep up appearances, but there will definitely be _no_ kissing."

She was relieved to see the corner of his mouth twitch into the beginning of a smile. "But that's supposed to be the fun part," he said sarcastically.

"No kissing," she hissed at him.

His smile gave way to a small chuckle. "I promise, Kamiya."

"Kaoru."

"Ah, yes, Kaoru," he corrected himself.

"Get used to it," she murmured, turning her attention back to her breakfast. Japan seemed so far away from her now that she was about to step foot onto a new country, with a man that was supposed to be her lover. She should have been feeling dreadful, but as she watched Lei and Enishi's exchange earlier followed by Enishi's obvious struggle to remember calling her by her given name, she instead felt curious as to what Shanghai will hold for her.

The rest of their time on the ship passed quickly, and soon enough Kaoru caught her first glimpse of China's shoreline. She watched on the deck beside Enishi and Lei as the ship docked and the planks were lowered. They hung back as the crowd of passengers jostled each other trying to get off the ship first, and only when the crowd had thinned did Enishi pick up their bags and nodded for them to start walking.

Kaoru kept a hand wrapped around Enishi's arm as they walked, while her other hand held his watou, which he couldn't carry with his hands full. She couldn't stop looking around at the myriad of sights and sounds that assaulted her senses. The people were varied, and she saw more foreigners than she used to see in Japan. Her ears pricked at the strange language, though she could make out some familiar words she had encountered in her readings and her short lessons with Lei.

"I had Heishin send word about our arrival so we should be expecting a carriage," Enishi said.

"I see it," Lei said, pointing out a black carriage drawn by four horses. A driver sat in front, while a tall man with dark brown hair was standing by the door. "I see Yuan has come to meet us."

 _Yuan,_ Kaoru thought, her hand tightening around Enishi's arm. _Right, he's one of the division heads of the organization._

The man called Yuan spied them and walked up to meet them. He spoke to Enishi in Chinese, and Kaoru picked out some words of greeting in what he said. He glanced at Kaoru curiously until Enishi said something to him, and Yuan nodded quickly in understanding. He opened the door for them, and the four of them piled into the carriage, Kaoru sitting next to Enishi, as the driver of the coach secured their bags on the carriage's roof.

Once they had settled themselves inside, with her and Enishi sitting across from Lei and Yuan, Enishi slid an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him, taking his watou from her hands and laying it across both their laps. He gave her ponytail a small reassuring tug, and Kaoru forced herself to relax against him, noting that Lei, for all his teasing on the ship, remained serious in front of Enishi's display.

Enishi addressed Yuan in Chinese, his tone calm and measured. Kaoru couldn't understand most of what he was saying, but she felt the quiet authority in his voice. She looked at the passing scenery, passively listening to them talk. She remembered how Enishi had addressed Heishin back on the island. His voice was full of loathing and contempt. Today, though, he was very business-like, which only showed that he regarded these people much higher than how he regarded Heishin.

 _I wonder if I'm expected to act a certain way if I'm to be introduced as his intended,_ she thought. She would have to ask him about it. She was quite glad that she couldn't speak Chinese, at least she wasn't expected to join in on the conversation.

Suddenly, she was aware that she was hearing her native language, and she looked up to see Yuan addressing her. "Welcome to Shanghai, Kaoru," he said, his Japanese a little stiff but completely understandable. "We did not know that Enishi was bringing someone back along with him. I would have gotten a more comfortable carriage."

"Oh," Kaoru said. _Can they all speak Japanese?_ "This carriage is fine. Thank you for coming to meet us."

Soon, they pulled up a large three story building with a sign in front that read Jade Garden. There were men coming in and out of the gate, some of them accompanied by women wearing fancy clothes and make up. Enishi caught her staring, and he smirked. "It's a brothel," he said. "The entrance to our headquarters is hidden inside."

"A brothel," she repeated, amused.

The carriage stopped and they alighted from it. Enishi helped her down, and held onto her hand as they walked into the brothel. Their bags were left in the care of their driver.

Enishi led her through the maze of hallways flanked by numerous doors. Kaoru could hear men and women through the thin walls and she winced as she thought of all the things happening within those rooms. They passed through a gate, where there were two men standing guard. The guards gave a quick greeting to the four of them before allowing them through. The gate opened into another corridor, which then led out into a beautiful garden with a pond off at one side and tall trees on the other. There was a dirt path that stretched onwards, and from the path, smaller paths snaked out, leading to small, individual houses, which she supposed housed the different members of the organization. Several flowering shrubs occasionally punctuated the serene landscape, and Kaoru felt that the place radiated tranquility in spite of being the underworld's headquarters.

Lei stopped in front of one house. "This is my place," he said to Kaoru, pointing at a bungalow. "I guess I'll see you two later."

They walked onwards, and Enishi stopped in front of another bungalow. He said something to Yuan in Chinese, and the man nodded and, giving Kaoru a small nod, walked on. Enishi led Kaoru up the steps into the bungalow, and inserted a key into the lock. He opened the door for her, nudging her inside. "My house," he said.

Kaoru stepped in and took a look around. It was not a small space, but there were no rooms. It was one large area that contained a king-sized bed in one corner, a small dining area with a kitchen, an ornate writing desk in another corner and a short couch against one wall. There was one large closet, and a door at one end, which she supposed led to the bathroom. _Goodness, I'm not going to have any privacy at all in this place,_ she thought. Her eyes fell on the bed. _Are we going to share a bed?_

He followed her eyes. "Sorry, Kaoru, we're going to have to share the bed," he said, a ghost of a smile on his face.

"You don't look so sorry," she said in resignation.

He ran a hand through his hair and pushed up his glasses. "We'll have to meet Ming together, he'll know I'm back by now."

She nodded, feeling weird. "I feel out of place in my kimono," she confessed.

"We'll get you some Chinese clothes tomorrow," he promised. "Come."

He held out his hand, and Kaoru took it, by now familiar with the feel of his calloused palm against hers. She felt a tad more confident whenever he held her hand, like he was her lifeline, and in a way, he was. While she was in this strange land, all she could hold on to was his promise to protect her, and to eventually return her to Tokyo.

 **End of Chapter.**

 **Note: Here's the fourth installment. Thanks for following this story. Next update will be next week, probably Saturday or Sunday because I have to attend a conference this week and will have no time to refine the next chapter.**

 **Thanks to those who replied to my Yokohama-Shanghai question in the previous chapter. And thanks for the math, aizufox, haha. In my story, I imagined Enishi and Kaoru had about 4 days on the ship.**

 **Oh, and I got tired of having it called TBA. It's got a title now, lol.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

Enishi walked through the grounds, mindful of the feel of Kaoru's hand in his. He knew she had courage, but in this new place, he had no idea how far her strength could take her. Already, in the carriage, he could feel her faltering, and now she looked downright pale.

Halfway to the main mansion where the syndicate conducted their business, he stopped walking, facing her. "Kaoru, you look like you're walking to your own execution," he said, exasperation evident in his voice.

She forced herself to breathe evenly. "Everything is just so…" she murmured, gesturing around. "Everything is so new to me. You are the only thing that is familiar to me now, Enishi. I feel lost."

He looked into her blue eyes and he felt sympathy. Pulling her close to him, he let go of her hand so that he could wrap an arm around her, placing his hand at her waist while his other hand held on to his watou. "I understand how you feel," he said. "But I will take care of you while you are here. I'm the boss and they fear me. No harm shall come to you."

He meant every word of what he said, and again he felt that compulsion to protect her as Battousai had failed to do so. He searched her eyes, looking for that trusting look that he had first seen on the island, and after a few moments he was rewarded as she gave him a small nod. "All right," she said.

She bowed her head, her bangs brushing against his chest, and he loosened his hold on her before they continued walking. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. She seemed better now, and he was satisfied.

They entered the main building, and Enishi merely nodded to the guard standing outside. "Is Ming in?" he asked in Chinese.

"Yes sir," the guard said, doing a double-take and snapping to attention when he recognized Enishi. "He's expecting you."

Without another word, Enishi strode inside, going into the study he knew Ming used for meetings. Sure enough, he found the syndicate boss there, alone, thankfully. The middle-aged man was busy reading a newspaper, but he looked up when Enishi walked further into the room.

"Enishi, welcome back," Ming said, rising up from his seat.

"I was loath to come back so prematurely," Enishi said. "I was still handling some personal matters in Japan."

"This will be the last time," Ming said, the older man glancing at Kaoru.

"I'll just have to make sure all the problems are sorted out this time so you won't be needing me back," Enishi said. He nodded towards Kaoru. "This is Kamiya Kaoru, I brought her with me from Japan."

Ming eyed Kaoru from head to toe, and Enishi felt his muscles tense when he noticed the way his eyes studied her so critically. "Does she speak Chinese?" Ming asked.

"No."

"My Japanese is a little rusty," Ming said. However, he turned to Kaoru and spoke in fluent Japanese. "Welcome to Shanghai."

"Thank you," Kaoru replied uncertainly.

"I brought her with me," Enishi said, catching Ming's eye. "She's my intended."

Surprise crossed Ming's face. "I didn't think you were the type," he said.

Enishi smiled arrogantly. "I have always planned to continue my bloodline," he said.

Ming shrugged as well. "Well, if she is your future wife, then she's welcome to stay here with you. I'm going to hold you responsible for her, though. And best let the other seniors know this as well to avoid any confusion."

"I'll handle it," Enishi said confidently. "What's the order of business?"

"Take a seat, both of you," Ming said, walking back around his desk to take his own seat. Once they were all seated, Ming switched back to speaking in Chinese.

"Over the last two months, four of our drug dens have been attacked, leaving no survivors. Most of the resources were taken. I have already talked with my contact in the police, he thinks that the hit was done by one hired group since the modus in all four locations were similar. Of course the police are kept out of it, I don't want them sniffing too close to our affairs."

Enishi tented his fingers under his chin, his eyes narrowing as he digested this. "Have you sent any of the senior members to take a look at the places?"

"I've sent Mei and Soong An," Ming said. "In their investigation, they have narrowed down the suspects to a ninja clan. I'll have them fill you in later, I called for a meeting of the seniors at dinner tonight. You may bring your woman, it will be a good opportunity for you to introduce her to the others. Of course you need to impress upon her that whatever we talk about in the syndicate stays in the syndicate."

Enishi cast a sidelong glance at Kaoru. "She's been warned," he said. He stood up, holding out his hand to Kaoru. "We will see you later, then."

They took their leave of Ming, and walking back towards his house, he looked at her. "I know you've been reading that language book I gave you, and you've had good progress with your lessons with Lei. How much of that did you understand?"

"I couldn't hang on to every word," Kaoru admitted. "But I understood that you've got people attacking some of your facilities and Ming wants to continue discussing it later tonight."

He nodded. He knew it, Kaoru was smart enough to understand the gist of things, which meant she wouldn't be totally lost when people around her started talking in Chinese. "We will have dinner with the rest of them tonight. They won't all be as nice as Lei."

"If you're the meanest of them all, I think I'll survive," she said sarcastically.

"I'm not mean, Kaoru," he said, opening the door to his house and ushering her inside. "I'm only mean when I need to be, however in my line of work, that means all of the time."

Once they were inside, Kaoru proceeded to open the windows. He leaned against the edge of his desk, arms crossed, watching her amusedly. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"You've been away so long, the air inside is stuffy. And your furniture is dusty," she said, gesturing around. "I need to clean it."

He tipped his head to the side. She was so used to having just the two of them on the island. "Kaoru, we've got servants here to do the cleaning."

She stopped moving around. "Really?"

"Really," he said, uncrossing his arms. "I'll have them clean the house while we are at dinner. In the meantime, you can use the time to freshen up. I'm not going to that dinner and introduce you as the woman who will bear me many perfect children if you look like something that's just come off a trip in a stuffy ship. I'm known for my fine tastes."

He walked over to his closet, retrieving a towel and tossing it to her, effectively cutting off what looked like a heated retort. "I _have_ just gotten off a ship, and you _are_ mean," she said to him before pivoting on her heel to seal herself in his bathroom.

Enishi smiled with satisfaction. Getting Kaoru riled up was synonymous to getting her spirits up. It would be better to have her fuming at him for a few minutes than to have her scared and apprehensive about being in Shanghai. When he heard the water running in the bathroom, he exited the house, securing the door behind him. He walked briskly to the bungalow opposite his and knocked on the door.

"Mei," he called through the door.

The door promptly opened, and Enishi found himself face to face with the young doctor that headed the drugs division. Mei was about five years older than Kaoru, but they were of the same build.

"Enishi, you're back," Mei said, leaning against the doorframe.

"I need to borrow a couple of dresses," Enishi said, ignoring the heat he could feel was rising in his neck. He jerked his head towards his house. "I brought someone with me from Japan."

"Oh?" Mei said, her eyes widening in surprise. "That's interesting," she said, giggling. "Does father know?"

"Yes," Enishi said impatiently.

"I have a couple of dresses I haven't even used yet," she said, turning back inside her house.

Enishi stayed outside, keeping one eye on his own bungalow. Mei reappeared after a minute and shoved a bundle into Enishi's hands. "You can tell her to have these. And if she needs more in the coming days, I know several stores in town that sell nice ones."

"This will do," Enishi said, nodding as he turned to go back to his own house.

The water had stopped running, meaning Kaoru was done with her bath. Enishi knocked on the bathroom door. "Kaoru, I've got some clothes for you," he called out.

The door opened a crack, and he caught a glimpse of Kaoru's freshly scrubbed face, any trace of irritation with him gone. "Oh," she said when she saw him holding out the dresses. "Thank you, Enishi." She took them from him, shutting the door quickly.

Enishi ran a hand through his hair, feeling uneasy about being _too_ nice to Kaoru. Then again, they were supposed to be a couple. _This is such a treat I've gotten myself into,_ he thought, kicking off his boots and lying down on his bed. He was sure that Lei was secretly bursting his sides laughing at their charade, though he was sensible enough to act serious in front of Yuan.

He turned his head as Kaoru emerged from the bathroom, dressed in one of Mei's dresses. It was a deep purple dress with short sleeves and a Chinese collar and pale pink trimmings. It followed Kaoru's figure closely, the narrow skirt sporting a modest slit that allowed her to walk more easily.

Enishi couldn't help but smile at the sight. It was a change from the kimonos she usually wore, and with her hair down instead of tied up in a ponytail, she looked different. _More woman than girl,_ he decided.

She gave him a hesitant smile as she rubbed her bare arms. "I feel underdressed," she confessed.

"That's the usual dress here," he said, still gazing at her. "Don't worry, you look good in it." He didn't notice the compliment he had dropped until he caught her flushing.

She gathered her hair in one hand and reached for her ribbon, but he shook his head. "Leave it down," he said.

Kaoru dropped her hands, and something deep inside Enishi stirred as his eyes traveled down to the slit that revealed part of her leg. Abruptly, he stood up and grabbed another towel from his closet. "My turn," he said, locking himself in the bathroom before he could get further aroused.

Stripping himself of his clothes, he turned on the cold water and immersed himself in it, rubbing the back of his neck tiredly. _She's my charge. She's here under my protection. That means I can't ravish her,_ he told himself amusedly. He'll just have to deal with it.

An hour later and they were sitting at the long dining table in the headquarters' main building. Enishi sat beside Kaoru, and he caught her eyeing the silverware on the table. He hid a smirk as she gauged the knife and fork, remembering how awkward she was when having to use them for the first time on the ship from Yokohama.

Lei was there, sitting across from Enishi, and Mei had also arrived to sit at the chair beside her father, who was busy giving instructions to one of the servants. Mei was looking at Kaoru with polite interest, then she looked at Enishi expectantly. Enishi ignored her, wanting to do the introductions only once, after everyone had arrived, but Mei couldn't be made to wait.

She leaned towards Kaoru. "You must be the one Enishi told me about earlier," she said.

Kaoru looked at the older girl cautiously. "I'm sorry, I don't speak Chinese," she said.

"Oh, my apologies," Mei said, comfortably switching to Kaoru's native tongue. "You can blame Enishi for not making the proper introductions. I am Mei."

"Kamiya Kaoru," Kaoru answered, relaxing a little with Mei's easygoing attitude.

"I'll do the introductions when everyone gets here," Enishi said.

Mei rolled her eyes. "You know how late some people can be," she said.

"Thank you for the dress," Kaoru said.

Mei waved her hand dismissively. "I have plenty," she said. "I told Enishi I know some shops where you could get more. You must be hungry after just having arrived from your trip. Father, we can eat ahead… we don't have to wait for everyone to get here, do we?"

Ming glanced at his daughter and nodded. "Go ahead," he said.

Mei raised a hand and snapped her fingers, and several of the servants standing by moved to place plates of food on the table. As Enishi looked at the steak placed in front of him, he felt his hunger. He had been used to western food while in Shanghai, and he had to admit he missed it when he had been in Japan for weeks. Then being with Kaoru on the island for a month forced to endure her cooking made him miss any food that was not burnt, overcooked or undercooked. He picked up his knife and fork, proceeding to cut the meat. Kaoru copied him, managing to pick her way through her meal although more slowly than him.

The five of them ate in silence for a few minutes, and only when they had sated their hunger for a bit did the conversations start. It was Mei, always in the role of a good host, who started talking.

"How was your trip?" she asked, looking at Lei.

Lei shrugged. "Some rough seas but otherwise quite boring. Unlike Enishi, I did not have such nice company to keep me entertained everyday," he said, throwing Enishi a wicked grin.

Enishi resisted the urge to throw his knife at Lei as Kaoru's hand slipped and her knife fell to her plate with a loud clatter. Kaoru picked up her knife again, murmuring a quick apology, just as another person joined them at the table.

"We have a new member?" the newcomer asked in Chinese.

Enishi looked over at Soong An, the other enforcer of the group, and felt a stab of irritation when he saw her give Kaoru a look of disdain. Mei saw the subtle exchange, and stepped in. "This is Kaoru, Enishi's guest from Japan," she said. "Kaoru, this is Soong An."

Soong An took her seat across from Kaoru, her dark green eyes still fixed on the girl. "We accept guests here now?" she asked. She was still speaking in Chinese, and her unfriendly tone cut off Kaoru from making any acknowledgement of the introductions done by Mei.

"No, but we do accept family," Lei said, leaning back, amused. "Kaoru here is Enishi's wife. Or wife to be, they haven't actually married yet. I had to drag Enishi all the way back here before they could do so. And I perfectly understand why he didn't want to leave her in Japan."

Soong An frowned at this, and Enishi nodded, choosing not to say anything and moderately glad that Mei and Lei had taken care of introducing Kaoru. "Enishi," she said snidely. "I didn't know you were the type."

"Maybe you just didn't know Enishi's type," Lei commented, earning him a death glare from the woman.

Kaoru looked at Enishi uncertainly, and he discreetly gave her knee a reassuring squeeze under the table. He was expecting this kind of reaction from Soong An, he knew along with Lei that the swordswoman had long carried affections for him, feelings he had no interest in returning. It was that particular reason that he resigned from the weapons division and gave control of it to Lei.

Before Soong An could answer Lei's jab, two other people joined them at the table. Enishi quickly introduced Cheng, and Yuan gave a courteous nod to Kaoru, whom he had already met earlier.

"Jiao won't be coming," Mei said as soon as the two men were served their dinner. "He had to take stock of inventories in one of our laboratories and did not want to travel at night."

"We're complete then," Ming said. "Let's start with business." He looked at the servants milling around in the dining room and gestured for them all to leave.

Enishi sat back, done with his own meal, ready to be brought up to date with everything that has happened.

"I will start," Mei said, leaning forward and looking at Enishi. "The past two months, four of our drug factories were attacked, everyone left dead, and all of our resources taken."

Enishi nodded. "I've seen the reports sent to me."

"Two weeks ago, Soong An and I came to the conclusion that the attackers were ninjas. I couldn't believe it at first, since it suggests that the attackers were not of Chinese origin, but from the weapons we've recovered I believe they come from Japan. I've kept some of the evidence so you can take a look, Enishi."

"Some ninja clans in Japan have resorted to being hired on contract since the revolution ended," Enishi said. "Our organization has not formally entered Japan's market yet so I doubt it if a group from Japan is interested in locking horns with us. You could have captured some of their members and extracted information from them."

"We were always behind," Mei said. "Whenever the attacks hit us, they are long gone by the time us seniors get there. All we have to work with are the things they leave behind."

"I'm an enforcer, not an investigator. Why did you call me back if I don't have a target to hit yet?" he asked.

"There is only one more drug den that have yet to be hit," Mei said. "Soong An has been lying in wait at one of the locations in an attempt to intercept their attack."

"You want me to do it as well," he said.

"You and Soong An," Mei answered.

Enishi's eyes narrowed. He would have preferred to do it alone rather than work with Soong An. "I can do it by myself," he said. "Do we have any information when the attacks would likely take place?"

"No, but they always hit during the new moon, which starts in two days."

"Fine," Enishi snapped. "We will go to the factory the day after tomorrow."

"Not tomorrow?" Soong An asked, surprised. "We shouldn't take any chances."

"I have plans for tomorrow," Enishi said.

"Come on, we've just arrived today," Lei protested to Soong An. "Give him some time to rest."

Soong An quieted down at this. Ming nodded in satisfaction, and proceeded to other matters of business as Enishi tuned out of the conversation. They were talking about the tea trade, and Cheng was giving his status report.

 _Soong An couldn't do this matter on her own, they had to drag me back from Japan for this,_ he thought testily.

The dinner-meeting wound down to a close, and as soon as Ming adjourned it, Enishi stood up, holding a hand out to Kaoru. "Soong An, we'll set out early the day after tomorrow," he said. "I'll talk to you about further details tomorrow night."

Soong An nodded her affirmation and looked after him as he walked off with Kaoru, an unreadable expression on her face. The rest of the syndicate's heads walked off to their own houses, with Mei ending up walking with Enishi and Kaoru since they lived across from each other.

In Chinese, she gave Enishi directions regarding which clothing stores in the city would be a good place for Kaoru to shop for her clothes, and Enishi committed two shop names to memory. When Mei came to the path that led to her house, she gave Kaoru a smile. "Goodnight," she said. "See you around, Kaoru. If Enishi's company starts to grate on you, you can come seek me out any time."

Enishi rolled his eyes as Kaoru said her thanks. Soon, they were in the confines of their own house, and Enishi let go of Kaoru's hand.

She ran a hand through her hair as she sat down on the couch. "Mei seems nice," she said.

He nodded. "I thought you might get along with her. Ming doesn't have a wife, so she acts as the first lady of the syndicate." He removed his jacket and hung it inside the closet.

"They were pretty much all right, except for that Soong An," she murmured. "I take back what I said earlier, you're not the meanest."

He chuckled, sitting down on the bed and facing her. Now that they were alone, he felt more relaxed, and he saw that Kaoru felt the same way. "Soong An has affections for me, that's why she was mean to you."

She looked at him in disbelief, and he raised his eyebrows. "Contrary to what you may imagine, Kaoru, some women do find me attractive."

She burst out laughing at this as she adjusted her position on the sofa, lifting her legs up so she could recline on it comfortably. "I never doubted that, Enishi," she said. "It's just that she seems so… harsh. She's quite pretty, though."

"I was never interested in the slightest bit," he said, lying down on the bed and propping his head up on his arms. She was right, though. Soong An was pretty, with sharp but delicate features and a well-toned body that would satisfy any man. However, if he had to choose, he would prefer to look at Kaoru's simple face over Soong An's exotic features.

"Now I feel sorry for Soong An," she said.

"Unrequited love and all that shit?" he asked, knowing that she was thinking of Battousai, and feeling that familiar anger start to burn in his stomach.

"Yes," she answered.

"Don't compare yourself to her. Your feelings for Battousai did not make you a bitter person," he said. "Even when you speak my sister's name, I do not feel that you dislike her."

"I don't," she agreed. "I think Tomoe-san was a really good person."

He took a deep breath as he thought about his sister, and her life that was cut short far too early. "She would have liked you," he murmured. He imagined what it would have been like had Tomoe not died. She would be in her thirties now, possibly with children of her own. He wondered, if Battousai hadn't existed, if he and Kaoru would have met under different circumstances since both of them lived in Tokyo.

He shook his head, pushing away his useless thoughts. "Tomorrow morning, we're going into town to buy you some clothes," he said. "We will be leaving early, so we'd better get to bed." The last word hung heavily in the air as he watched her.

"Okay," she said, eyeing the couch. "I can sleep here on the couch."

He figured she would say that. "Don't be absurd. This bed is so big two other people can sleep between us and we would still be comfortable."

She looked at him guardedly, and he couldn't help but grin. "I even promise to sleep with my shirt on," he added.

She huffed at this before going into the bathroom to change into a nightgown. Enishi's smile widened as he kicked off his boots and slid in between the bed covers. He was lying on his back, and when Kaoru came out of the bathroom, he closed his eyes, pretending to be on the way to sleep. He felt the bed shift as Kaoru climbed in.

"Good night," he said as she turned out the light.

"Good night," she answered in the darkness. "And Enishi, no snuggling."

His shoulders shook with silent laughter as he turned his back to her. "I promise."

 **End of Chapter.**

 **Thanks again to those who read and reviewed. I think it would be really nice to snuggle up with Enishi, as long as he's not in a crazy fit.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

When Kaoru awoke the next morning, she found herself snuggled up to Enishi's back. With a short cry, she sat up, waking him up in the process.

"What," he said irritably, his voice gravelly from just coming out of sleep.

"Enishi, I said no snuggling!" she said, hitting him on the arm.

He opened one eye and turned his head to look at her. "Kaoru, you're on my side of the bed. I'm practically on the edge here."

She looked at her situation. He was right. "I must have rolled over in my sleep," she said, embarrassed that she had reacted so violently and, worse, hit him.

He seemed to dismiss her physical assault and he shifted so he was facing her. "If you wanted me to keep you warm, you could have just asked," he said conceitedly. He reached out and pulled her to him, wrapping an arm around her.

"Enishi," she warned him, struggling futilely against his strong hold.

"You _are_ cold," he said. "It's still early. Let's stay here a bit as the morning chill eases off."

She stopped moving and allowed herself to warm up. Although her mind was screaming at her for allowing him to handle her so intimately and while she was in her nightgown too, her body welcomed the heat coming from Enishi's body as it warmed her back.

He dozed off after a while, and she could feel his even breaths at the back of her neck. She couldn't help but wonder at the thought of him falling back asleep so easily. _I can't believe how comfortable he is with me now._

When they first met on the island, he had been distant, but over the days she had tried to strike up small conversations with him. He had started talking to her, and she discovered that he was actually interesting to talk to when he wasn't being mean. And even when he was, even when he teased her, she found that she couldn't stay angry with him for long. She found that when he was slightly amused, the corner of his lips would twitch, as if he wanted to smile but had to keep himself from doing so. She also noticed that when he was displeased, he either pushed his glasses up his nose or, if he didn't have his glasses on, he would pinch the bridge of his nose. In time, she learned to read the rest of his body language, no matter how subtle they were, and this allowed her to act accordingly so that they could have a harmonious time together.

Perhaps the biggest change between their odd relationship came around when they started the trip to Shanghai. Maybe it was because jinchuu was temporarily on hold, maybe it was because Kenshin was far from his mind right now, but whatever it was, he had been more open to her the last few days. And now that she was in a different country, with no other friends nearby, she welcomed the security he provided her. With him at her side, she did feel safe.

They must have lain together for another hour before Enishi stirred. "There would be breakfast in the main house," he said, releasing her from his hold and stretching his arms above his head. "Do you want a heated bath after breakfast before we set out?"

She nodded. "Yes please."

He got out of bed, taking a thick bathrobe from his closet and handing it to her. "You can just put this over your nightgown for breakfast. I doubt anyone will be there anyway. Maybe Mei."

She took the bathrobe and slipped it on. It belonged to him, and the sleeves went past her hands. He looked at her for a while, his mouth twisting in amusement, before he reached out and rolled the sleeves partway up.

They went to the dining room, which was deserted. There was food laid out on the table, though, an assortment of fruits, some bread, and some dumplings. As Kaoru sat down on the table, she hoped they wouldn't run into Soong An. She wondered what the other girl would think if she saw Kaoru wearing Enishi's robe.

 _I have to admit, though, it feels nice to have someone's attention on me for a change,_ she thought as she buttered a piece of bread.

Breakfast was uneventful. They were left alone, except when Enishi had called one of the servants over to instruct her to prepare a warm bath at his house for Kaoru. Just as they were about to leave, they ran into Lei in the front steps of the main house.

"You're going into town today?" Lei asked.

"Yes," Enishi answered.

"Can I ride with you in the carriage? I'm supposed to check on a shipment of firearms coming in," Lei said.

Enishi nodded wordlessly, not even slowing down his pace as he continued to steer Kaoru back to their house.

An hour later had the three of them riding the carriage into the center of town. They passed by the pier to drop off Lei before they dismounted at an end of a shopping street.

It was a busy street, and Kaoru was amazed at the different people that she saw walking about. There were Chinese men and women, some of them dressed traditionally, some of them in western attire. There were a handful of foreigners, some of them having hair color so light such that Enishi's white hair did not really stand out in the crowd.

Enishi took her elbow as they walked down the street. "This is Shanghai's main shopping district," he explained. "Mei told me about some shops here that would interest us."

They walked along, and Kaoru could see that while Enishi did not have his watou with him, he was still alert, his eyes moving about seeming to take in everything. _This is the kind of life that he has. Even when he's just out shopping, he has to stay on his toes. It must be tiring at some point,_ she thought, understanding a little why Enishi seemed to get comfortable while they were alone on the island.

He located one of the stores Mei had told him about, and he ushered Kaoru inside. Kaoru looked around. It looked different from the other stores on the street, this one being not so busy. There were racks and racks of clothes, and two Chinese women were standing by waiting for a customer. Judging from their decorum, Kaoru surmised that this must be one of the expensive shops. Then again, she did not expect the Chinese mafia to shop in the cheaper stores.

Kaoru looked, interested, as Enishi gave her a brief look from head to toe before leafing through one rack, his critical eye glancing at each dress. Every once in a while, he would pull one off the rack and hand it to Kaoru without saying anything. Ten minutes later, Kaoru was holding what appeared to be ten dresses in her arms.

"Enishi, I think this is already too much," she said as he moved on to another rack.

"I don't want us having to do laundry everyday," he said.

"There are already ten dresses here," she said, exasperated.

"I want you to have nice clothes," he said.

"Oh." She squinted at him. "What's wrong with my old clothes?"

"Nothing, just that most of them were left behind in Japan," he replied pointedly. "If you're going to be my wife here, you're going to have to live like I do. Which means having an abundance of everything."

"But these look expensive," she protested.

He smiled sardonically. "I'll let you pay me back without interest no matter how many years it takes."

"Enishi!" she cried, preparing to dump the clothes onto the counter. "I can't afford this."

"Kaoru, shut it. I'm paying. Consider it inclusive of the whole abduction issue," he said, annoyed.

She clamped her mouth shut as he moved on to another rack. He picked out several loose pants and shirts as well, and added these to the growing pile in Kaoru's arms. He ended his task by dumping a pair of Chinese slippers on the counter. He beckoned to one of the girls and spoke to her in rapid Chinese, giving her a card from his pocket. He then took all the clothes in Kaoru's arms and dumped them on the counter as well before taking Kaoru by the elbow and steering her out of the store.

"Are they just going to bring those clothes to your house?" she asked, not catching much of what he said to the store proprietor.

"Yes, I told them to deliver the clothes this afternoon to the brothel, and to pick up the payment there as well."

"Wonderful. So now the shopkeeper thinks I'm a whore," she muttered.

"Most likely," he agreed, taking her by the elbow again.

He led her to another shop, but this time, it was a perfume shop. There were dozens of shelves that contained different soaps, oils and perfumes. Enishi walked around, reading the labels, until he found what he was looking for. He took several soaps and bottles of oil, handing some of them to Kaoru.

"These are…" she asked.

"You use my soap and oils when you bathe," he said. "I don't mind sharing, but I know you prefer jasmine, don't you?"

"Yes," she answered, touched by his thoughtfulness. She watched him as he settled their purchases, and moments later they were back on the street, the package in Enishi's hand. "Thank you," she said.

He smiled, and it was not the first time that she noticed how handsome he actually was when he wasn't brooding. _Actually, even when he's brooding, he still looks good,_ she corrected herself. Walking the streets of Shanghai on his arm, she allowed herself to believe for a moment that she was indeed his partner in real life, the partner of one of the most powerful and respected men in China's underworld. She had to admit that the idea had some appeal to her in a romantic way. It made her feel significant, that somehow some of Enishi's power automatically transferred to her.

She thought about the expensive clothes Enishi had gotten for her. They were meant to be a status symbol, and she realized that while Enishi had been telling everyone at the syndicate that she was his intended, she needed to play the part. Just as Enishi's actions affected the way people saw her, her own actions would affect the way people would see him. _When he claimed me in front of everyone, he did not only offer protection to me, but he also set himself up for a vulnerability,_ she thought. She glanced up at him, and in that instant, she made up her mind. _I should be stronger, more confident. I refuse to be seen as his weakness._ She would take their role-playing more seriously.

"You're deep in thought," he observed.

She met his eyes. "Nothing important," she said. She offered him a smile.

He gazed at her, and she wondered if he was going to pry, but he left it at that. He broke eye contact with her. "It's nearing lunch time. Let's meet Lei at the docks and see if he wants to join us before we head back to the brothel."

They walked to the docks, going to a warehouse that Enishi explained the syndicate used for their shipments. They found Lei there, and as Enishi walked up to him, Kaoru took the package of soaps and oils from him so he could have his hands free.

"Lei," he said when they were within earshot.

"Hey," Lei answered. "Your business in town done?"

"Yes. How is the shipment?"

Lei gestured around. "Several gattling guns and Armstrong cannons. Rifles and pistols. Ammunition. Everything is in order. I'm going to set up an auction towards the end of the week for our clients."

"Demands still up?"

"Rising," Lei confirmed.

"Our revenues from weapons will cover the losses we had from the drug division's mess," Enishi said. He crossed his arms as his eyes swept over the rest of the shipment.

"The problem with drugs is that it's formula dependent," Lei said. "It's not Mei and Jiao's fault, but when other people get the formula we use for making drugs, we can easily get competition. It's not so easy with the foreigners bringing in their own opium as well. It's different with weapons. We have a solid business relationship with the manufacturers of these guns so we have a firm monopoly on them. Mostly because of the work you did with them before," he added with a grin.

Enishi smiled like a satisfied cat. "We will have a sit down with Ming one of these days and see if the drugs division is worth salvaging."

Lei looked at his watch. "Are you two up for lunch? I'm done here."

Enishi nodded. The three of them exited the warehouse, walking to an expensive restaurant that served Chinese cuisine. Since most of the menu was unfamiliar to Kaoru, she let Enishi order for her. He seemed to know her preferences anyway, since whenever they ate out and he chose the food, she had found everything to her liking. As they ate, Enishi and Lei continued to talk about business in Chinese, and Kaoru found that she could follow the gist of the conversation though she couldn't catch all the details.

She admired Enishi's no-nonsense approach with regards to the organization, and she noted the mutual respect he and Lei had for each other. Once they were done with lunch, they accosted a carriage to take them back to the brothel. Enishi was quiet on the ride back, and before he and Lei parted he said some words to the other man in Chinese, and Kaoru caught her name.

"What was that you said to Lei?" she asked him once they were back inside his house.

He hesitated. "Nothing important," he said, copying her words from earlier.

She raised an eyebrow at him. "I heard my name."

"I told him that if something happened to me, to take you back to Tokyo as soon as possible," he said after a while.

She looked at him as she understood that he had created a back up plan for her, letting her know that there was another person in Shanghai she could trust other than him. She thought about what would happen if something did happen to Enishi. She realized that she did not want him to suddenly disappear. It left a cold feeling at the pit of her stomach. "I would much rather have you take me back to Tokyo than anyone else," she told him. "So please take care of yourself."

He held her gaze for a moment, and Kaoru forced herself not to look away, willing him to see how much she meant the words she said. After a while, he nodded. "I always take care," he said.

He walked over to the bed, taking his watou and unwrapping the cloth that was wound around it. "I'm going to do some training," he said.

Kaoru looked at the packages on the bed. "I'll sort out these purchases," she said.

"Come find me in the training area when you're done," he told her. "It's about five minutes walk past Mei's house."

Left alone in the house, Kaoru proceeded to put away her new clothes. There were more than twenty items, and she wondered just how much they all cost. Enishi did not even ask about the prices when he was selecting them. _It's awfully nice to be wealthy,_ she thought wryly.

Enishi had good taste, too, he did not lie about that. She noticed that the clothes were varied. Some of the dresses were extravagant while others were plain. There were some loose pants and women's shirts as well. After sorting out everything, Kaoru decided to change into one of the pants and shirts. It was unusual attire, but she found that she could move more freely in them. She slipped on her new Chinese slippers and grabbed a small towel from the closet before exiting the house.

She followed Enishi's directions to the training area, passing by several guards on the way who gave her a polite nod. She acknowledged them in return without breaking her stride. She easily found the training area Enishi was referring to, which was actually a clearing with several wooden boards lined up at one end that served for target practice. There was a shed at one side, which she supposed contained different weapons.

Enishi was at the center of the clearing, alone, practicing some of his katas, his watou in hand. Kaoru leaned back against a tree, watching him. It was one of the things she did on the island last month, finding his movements fascinating to watch. She had heard Saito Hajime call him a tiger, and the policeman was apt in his comparison. Enishi was large, but quiet and graceful.

After fifteen minutes, Enishi paused in his practices and walked over to her, nodding at her attire. "Those clothes suit you," he said, sounding pleased. "I presume you don't feel so out of place now?"

She nodded, noting the sweat lining his forehead. She handed him the towel and he wiped his face. "You must be glad to get some training in after having none during the trip here."

"I am," he agreed. He tossed the towel over to hang by a tree branch as he grabbed her hand. "Come."

He led her to the shed, where she saw several weapons stacked against the walls. He got a bokken and handed it to her. "Spar with me," he said.

Kaoru took it and groaned. They sparred a few times on the island, with Enishi using his sword in its sheath so as not to cut her bokken. All of those times, Kaoru was reminded how far the gap between their skills were, with him penetrating her defenses each and every time. However, over the course of their stay, she noticed her technique becoming better, and she guessed it was because it was the only other time she had sparred with a swordsman more skilled than her since her father died.

"Wouldn't you be better off sparring with someone else like Lei?" she asked, following him to the center of the clearing.

"I don't really practice with anyone," he said.

"So what makes me the exception?" she asked, adopting her Kamiya Kasshin stance.

"You're my partner," he said mockingly. He sheathed his sword, and without further warning, lunged at her with a thrusting attack.

Kaoru met his attack, deflecting the tip of his sword with the handle of her bokken before pivoting to land a hit on his torso as their bodies crossed each other. Her attack did not hit, however, as Enishi sank to the ground and turned on his heel to move clear of her attack range. They continued to exchange thrusts and swings, with Enishi connecting with some of his attacks on Kaoru's arms and legs, but Kaoru was aware of how mindful he was with his hits that she felt minimal pain. Perhaps the only thing that was getting any injury was her pride as he showed her again how inferior her skills were to him.

She gasped as he connected with another blow, and her momentum caused her to stumble backwards. Enishi quickly lowered his watou as he grabbed her waist, pulling her to him. "Sorry," he said, his roguish grin showing that he was not sorry at all.

She was breathing hard, and he was not even winded. "You're not," she told him. "Do you really enjoy showing me how good you are?"

"A part of me, yes," he admitted, still holding onto her. "But that is where your problem lies, Kaoru."

"What?" she asked, her brain trying to catch up with what he was saying while it was registering the fact that he was still holding her quite close to him.

He released her and he picked up her bokken where it lay on the ground and handed it to her. "Whenever we spar, you always say ahead of time that I'm better than you, so when we fight it's like you already acknowledge the fact that you're not going to win. And while I agree that it is important to have an accurate assessment of your opponent's skill level, it shouldn't affect your confidence in your own skills."

They walked back to the tree, and Kaoru grabbed the towel she had brought for Enishi to wipe at her own face. Enishi stripped off his shirt and used it as his own towel, and Kaoru admired the way his muscles rippled with every movement. Enishi was a man who had no problem with confidence.

They were interrupted by Soong An and Lei coming into the clearing. "I didn't know Kaoru knows kendo," Lei said.

"She is a kendo instructor," Enishi told them.

"Though she's barely a match for you with her wooden sword, Enishi," Soong An said, smiling patronizingly.

Kaoru felt herself bristle at the comment, but Enishi merely shrugged. "It's how she prefers to fight," he said. "You remember Shishio Makoto?"

"The one who bought the ship? Yeah," Lei said.

"Kaoru defeated one of his henchmen with a wooden sword," he said, a hint of pride in his voice. "If you think less of her because of her weapon of choice, you'd better think first if you'd willingly face an opponent armed with a chain-scythe with just a bamboo sword. Otherwise, just shut it."

An annoyed look flashed across Soong An's face as Kaoru delighted in Enishi's defense. "I did have some help," she said demurely.

Enishi hoisted his watou onto his shoulder. "Soong An, we will leave tomorrow at six in the morning. Have the horses ready by then. The drug den is about four hours ride from here. I expect us to be there by late morning. Lei… I already gave you instructions earlier."

Lei nodded. "I've got it covered, boss," he said.

Enishi took Kaoru by the arm and they started to walk back to their house, done with their sparring now that they did not have the area to themselves. "Thank you for that staunch defense," she told him wryly.

"I would rather you have a better weapon, but I'm sure you won't be convinced," he said. "I remember you facing me with the sakabatou's sheath when I was about to take you away. It was very foolish. Cute, but foolish. If it wasn't me you were facing, you would be dead."

 _He found it cute?_ she thought. "That seems like a long time ago now," she said as they reached his house. The man she was so afraid of that night was the same man she now shared a bed with.

"It is," he agreed.

Perhaps it was because she was already so far removed from the events of her first encounter with Enishi that she allowed him to pull her close to him as they slept together again that night.

 **End of chapter.**

* * *

 **Once again, a huge thanks to those who reviewed. Here's another installment to keep you all happy.**


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Enishi checked his watou before slinging it over his shoulder. He straightened out his jacket as he stepped out the door of the house, Kaoru following behind him. It was early, the sun was barely up, but she had insisted on seeing him out though he told her to stay in bed.

Soong An was waiting for him outside, and Enishi quickly turned back to Kaoru. "I'll be back in a day or two," he said.

She nodded, and he saw the apprehension in her blue eyes. She seemed to hesitate before stepping up to him, pulling his head down with her hand on his shirt to plant a soft kiss on his cheek. "Please be careful," she said.

Enishi straightened out, not helping the smile that crept onto his face. _I thought she said no kissing?_ "I will," he told her. "Try not to worry too much. It doesn't do your pretty face any good."

He turned around, ignoring Soong An, and walked out of the compound. Soong An had prepared two horses for them, and Enishi mounted his steed, aware that he was still smiling from Kaoru's kiss. It wasn't just the kiss, he was also feeling good after spending the night sleeping spooned with her. He only wanted to sleep in close proximity with her last night, for he already accepted that her nearness made him feel good in a way that he had never felt before in his life. He had been thinking about it since before leaving the island, but coming up with no particular reason for feeling that way, he had decided to just accept it.

"I hope her weakness hasn't affected you," Soong An said after a while.

Enishi's thoughts grounded to a halt at her words and the smile slid off his face. "What?" he snapped.

"I said, I hope her weakness hasn't gotten to you," she repeated. "You're supposed to be the main enforcer here."

"I am _supposed_ to be in Japan attending to personal matters," he corrected her. "If it was not for the incompetency of the other enforcer left behind. This is the reason why I trained you before I left, Soong An. As for personal matters interfering with our work, I think you should look at yourself first before you say anything about me," he finished bluntly. "At least I still bring in results."

Soong An bristled at his words, and Enishi sighed inwardly. This was why he preferred to work alone instead of taking Soong An with him. It was bad enough that she took his rejection badly, but it made things worse when she showed how openly she antagonized Kaoru when he took his role as her guardian seriously. He not only wanted to defend her against physical harm, he also wanted to defend her against other kinds of attacks that threatened to disgrace her.

"Where did you meet her anyway?" she asked.

"Japan," he answered snidely.

"There's something suspicious about this, Enishi," she threatened.

"You mean there's something suspicious about me choosing to be with a woman?" he asked her critically. "Or can you not accept the fact that I did not choose you? Get off your high horse, Soong An."

"She doesn't seem to be your type."

"You know nothing," he muttered, ignoring the truth in her words.

"There is something wrong here and I intend to find out what it is."

It was bad timing on her part. They had already left the city far behind and were on a deserted road where there was no one else in sight. Enishi's vision turned dark, and without another word, he quickly unsheathed his sword and delivered a swift blow to the hamstrings of Soong An's horse. The animal screamed in surprise as it fell down to the ground. He quickly dismounted to drag Soong An from the saddle by her neck, his thumb pressing against her windpipe so effectively she couldn't even draw a breath. He shoved her up against a tree so hard the back of her head splintered the wood.

"Your job as an enforcer, you stupid girl, is to eliminate threats to the organization, not to cause trouble within its ranks," he hissed. "We follow a hierarchy, and I am your senior, and I demand respect because I earned it. You will not talk to me like I am your equal, because I am not. I will handle this mission on my own. Go run back to Ming like the whipped dog that you are and tell him what happened. See what he says."

He released her just before she blacked out, and when she drew in a shaky breath, he raised his hand, intending to give her a backhanded slap, but changed his mind and he curled his hand into a fist instead.

He turned his back on her, wiping the blood from his sword before sheathing it. He mounted his horse again and spurred it into a canter, not looking back at Soong An. He was still seething. He couldn't remember the last time he had lost his temper, but her remarks about Kaoru made his blood boil. He did not care if he had overreacted, but that was how he had built his reputation in the Chinese underground. He did not tolerate anything he didn't like, and he made sure everyone was reminded of it.

He cursed under his breath as he continued on his way. When he had claimed Kaoru under his wing, he knew he was setting himself up with a liability that would be out of his control. He had always been by himself, so he was able to control his actions and thus control others' perception of him. Having Kaoru with him by association put in another variable, though with the way she was conducting herself, he found no cause to complain. She hadn't wept, she hadn't sulked, she hadn't acted like a fool, and she had taken on her role as his partner with as much poise as she can.

Thinking about her helped him soothe his temper, and after a few minutes of riding, he found himself calm again. Now that he did not have to deal with Soong An, he thought about the task at hand. The attackers he was expecting were warrior ninjas, but it would be easy to pick one from their lot and interrogate him to find out if they had any involvement with the syndicate. It was a straightforward task, and he was already looking forward to getting back home to Kaoru.

* * *

Kaoru folded Enishi's dirty clothes into the laundry basket for the servants to pick up later that day. The house was small, but she found it terribly empty without Enishi, she was so used to being in the same room as him. _I hope he's all right._

She was surprised to hear a knock on the door. She opened it to find Mei. "Kaoru," the older girl said. "Father is inviting you to have lunch with him today."

"Oh," Kaoru said, wondering if there was something the matter. "Will the others be coming as well?"

Mei shook her head. "No, father just wants to have a chat with you. He knows since Enishi is out you might have nothing else to do."

"I see," she said, biting her lip. "I'll head over to the mansion as soon as I finish getting ready."

Kaoru closed the door and considered what to wear. She settled for a plain but elegant Chinese dress and put on her slippers. She walked to the main house, again acknowledging the guards that she passed along the way. She found Ming in the dining room, sitting alone in front of a table laden with food.

"Good morning," she said.

Ming looked up and smiled. "Kaoru, come have lunch with me," he said, gesturing to a seat.

Kaoru took her seat, and only when Ming started to eat did she touch her own plate. "Thank you for the invitation," she said.

"I know Enishi is out," Ming said. "I didn't want you or him to think that the organization would ignore you when he is not around. He really is one of our more valuable assets."

Kaoru nodded, unsure of how to respond. Ming continued talking. "I also wanted to speak to you, regarding Enishi's plans to leave the organization in the near future."

"What about it?" she asked calmly.

"He has been straightforward about it from the start, he said he will be leaving us, but having seen how good he is at what he does, I'd like him to reconsider," Ming said.

Kaoru thought about this. Did Ming hope that she could change Enishi's mind? What she wanted most of all for Enishi was to him to find his peace, and she knew he wouldn't find it in this place. "I don't think he will change his mind," she said honestly. "Nobody can really tell him what to do, not even me."

Ming sighed. "I thought you might be able to help, seeing that he holds you in high regard. I'm going to be honest with you, Kaoru. I fear for the future of the syndicate. Control of this organization has been passed down my family, but Mei is my only child, and a girl at that. When Enishi first came to us, I had hoped to marry Mei off to him, but Enishi is just too one-track minded to allow other things to steer him off his path."

"You are worried about Mei," Kaoru said.

Ming nodded. "This collapse of our drug division will deal us a big blow financially, but Enishi and Heishin are good at juggling the money to keep the rest of the organization afloat. However, I fear that there is something deeper than the hits on our drug division. Everything started when Enishi left, which is why I wanted him back to deal with this."

"You think Enishi's departure had something to do with this?" Kaoru asked.

"Yes," Ming answered. "He trained Soong An as an enforcer before he left, but Soong An simply cannot deliver the results Enishi did. Enishi is downright ruthless."

Kaoru felt her blood chill at the words, hearing him talk about Enishi that way. "He is," she agreed, remembering Enishi's attacks in Tokyo.

Ming eyed her. "You know how sinister he could be?"

"Yes," Kaoru said.

"Yet you stay with him," Ming said.

Kaoru chose her words carefully, knowing how delicate the subject was. "He is ruthless, and he has a fierce temper," she said. "But when he uses those to protect the ones he cares about, then I see the good in him."

Ming nodded at this. "I suppose," he said. "I was surprised when he came here with you. I never thought him capable of caring for others."

Kaoru thought about how much Enishi thought about his sister. "He is," she said.

"I see that now," Ming said. "Which is another reason why I asked to speak with you. I love my daughter very much, and I am always thinking about her future. I always thought that her future would be secure within the syndicate, but now that we are going through some rough waters, I want some reassurance. I couldn't ask Enishi this because I know he will not promise it to me, but I think you are a decent person. Kaoru, if things do not work out, can I ask you to look out for Mei?"

Kaoru smiled. "You are too quick to dismiss Enishi," she told him. "I am sure he would secure Mei's future if you had asked it of him. But I do give you my word that I'll look our for Mei."

Ming let out a long breath. "Now that I've got that out of the way, we can enjoy the rest of the lunch. I heard you were out yesterday. What do you think of Shanghai so far?"

Kaoru started to relax. "It's very different from Tokyo," she said. "There are more foreigners. However, I only saw the shopping district yesterday before we met Lei to have lunch at a Chinese restaurant."

Ming sat back. "You should get out more often, though I think Enishi wouldn't want you venturing out on your own. When he has some lull in his work maybe he will take you out."

Kaoru sipped her tea. "I doubt that. I think he wants to finish the job as quickly as possible."

They were interrupted when the doors to the dining room swung open and Soong An walked in. Kaoru looked at the girl and saw the bruises on her cheek and neck. "Back so soon?" she exclaimed in surprise.

Soong An appeared angry, and her nostrils flared when she saw Kaoru dining with Ming. She spoke to Ming in Chinese so fast that Kaoru couldn't make out any words. Ming listened calmly, then sighed when Soong An was done talking. He murmured a few words and sent Soong An out.

Kaoru looked at Ming in alarm. "Is Enishi all right?" she asked, half rising out of her seat to see for herself if Enishi had come back.

"It seems Enishi and Soong An had a disagreement on the way to their mission and he set her straight before sending her back," Ming said.

Kaoru looked at Soong An's retreating back. _Enishi did that to Soong An?_ She remembered how he had strangled her on the island when she tried to escape, and she knew the violence the man was capable of.

"It seems Enishi held back, if all Soong An has to show for it are bruises," Kaoru said. "What did they argue about?"

"Soong An said Enishi was angry about being called back so soon."

Kaoru raised an eyebrow. "It might be about something else," she said. "Enishi was irritated to have his schedule changed, but he wasn't angry about it."

"Whatever it is, we will just have to wait for him to hear his side," Ming said. "But that's the way Enishi is. If he sees something he doesn't like, he does something about it. It was unfortunate that our lunch had to end at such a sour note, Kaoru. Maybe dinner will be better. Join me again later tonight, with the rest of the seniors."

Kaoru took this as a sign that Ming wanted her to leave, and she rose from her seat. "Thank you, Ming," she said.

She made her way out of the mansion, and was met on the front steps by a smiling Lei. "Lei," she called out.

"Kaoru," he said. "How was your lunch with Ming?"

"I was nervous at first, but it turned out all right except for the end part."

"Are you referring to Soong An getting a whipping from Enishi?" Lei asked, amused. "I'm willing to bet my sword arm it's an argument about you."

"What makes you say that?" she asked as they walked towards Enishi's bungalow.

"Soong An hates you because Enishi's nice to you," Lei said, chuckling. "She's been trying to get on his good side for years but to no avail."

"Enishi is only nice to me because he needs to be," Kaoru said, referring to their charade.

Lei shook his head. "He's been nice to you for real," he insisted. "Even when I was on the island."

"It's because I'm nice to him," she said. "Considering the circumstances of our relationship."

Lei turned serious. "I don't know anything about his plans in Japan, only that you are a big part of it, he said."

They arrived at Enishi's house, and Kaoru turned the key into the lock. She looked up at Lei, wanting to confide in someone, and deciding that she could trust him as well. "The man that Enishi wants revenge on," she said slowly. "That is the man I am in love with."

Lei looked at her in shock. "Then how can you even afford to be in the same room with Enishi?" he asked in a low voice.

Kaoru pushed the door open, looking at the bed she shared with Enishi. "Because I can empathize with him."

Lei whistled. "Kaoru, you are a saint," he said. "I hope it doesn't backfire on you."

She smiled sadly. "I'll deal with it if it does," she said. She said goodbye to him and closed the door, locking it.

 _How can you afford to be in the same room with him?_ Lei's words resounded in her head. Kaoru lay down on the bed, noting Enishi's lingering scent on the sheets.

"Because he actually makes me feel good," she said, saying the real answer aloud to the empty room. She curled up comfortably in bed and wished Enishi would come back soon.

End of chapter.

* * *

This is just a little filler before I move on with the story. Thanks to those who are keeping up with my updates. And to those who reviewed, I feel I owe you some personal responses ^^ Since this is a short chapter, I'll answer some reviews and questions here.

Mmadams: yes, the sweet moments are coming up now and in the future chapters. I'm rereading and rewriting some stuff as I move along the story, because I wanted the syndicate members to have their own personalities and not just be filler characters. You'll see more of them in the coming updates.

Fairyfeme: yes, updates will be regular, I think at the rate I'm going, I will be putting up a chapter every 2-3 days. I'm almost done with the rough draft, the whole thing is already 80 pages worth in MS word, but I wanted the story to go more smoothly that's why I'm doing the editing in installments before posting it.

Madhatter'sAlice: Yup, keep checking every 3 days, I'll most likely have something new

Icess: I won't give spoilers for the next chapter, but you can expect something to happen ^^

Brausepanther: I was initially a k/k follower as well when I first came across RK (more than 10 years ago!) but when my interest was rekindled and I read the manga again, I just couldn't get the idea of Enishi out of my mind. There's so many possibilities as to what can be written about him the way the manga left him at rakuninmura, but for now I dig the e/k stuff. As for adultff, I might. I don't have an account there yet, though, this is my first and only one at present.

Lady: Yes, he has a soft spot for Kaoru. ^^

To those that made anonymous reviews, thanks as well. I do have some more ideas that have e/k in it, but it's going to be an alternate universe and will be mostly humor and adventure and will feature the rest of the rk gang (including tomoe, that's why I wanted to do an AU).


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8

Enishi walked past the brothel, quietly slipping past the guards at the gate who said nothing at his blood-stained clothes. He gripped his watou in his hand as he walked through the compound straight to his house. The entire task took him two days, much longer than he had anticipated.

He reached his door, noting that the lamp inside was still on in spite of the late hour. _Kaoru's still awake,_ he thought, knocking lightly. "Kaoru," he called out quietly.

The door opened almost immediately, and he was welcomed home by anxious eyes. "Enishi, I'm so glad you're back," she breathed, reaching out to touch his shoulder.

He put a hand to her waist and held her at arm's length as he stepped inside. "I'm filthy," he said, closing the door behind him.

"Are you hurt?" she asked, looking at the blood on his clothes.

"No, just bone weary," he answered, setting his sword down.

"I'll prepare a warm bath for you," she said, eyeing his state.

Enishi stripped off his jacket and his shirt as he sat down on one of the chairs by the writing desk, not wanting to soil the couch where Kaoru liked to sit. Kaoru went to the kitchen to heat some water for his bath. "Did you have any problems while I was gone?" he asked.

"No," she said, sitting down on the couch. "I had lunch with Ming yesterday, and today I spent the afternoon with Mei and she taught me some acupressure."

Enishi rubbed the back of his neck. "What did Ming want?"

"He asked me to ask you to reconsider leaving the syndicate," she told him. "I said you probably won't. You've got some bruises."

"It's nothing," he said, looking at his arm where there were some abrasions as well. He looked up as she walked to him.

"Just let me take a look," she said, gingerly touching the bruises on his arms and torso.

He let her examine him, his soreness lifting as he appreciated someone actually looking after him after a tiring day of work. He had always come home before to an empty house, relying on the servants to prepare his bath and to cater to his other needs. It was different to have Kaoru do these things for him. It was a nice change.

"I told you, it's nothing," he insisted, catching her probing hand to stop her from further touching him, for it was starting to arouse him. He looked at her, their faces within inches of each other, and he remembered her kiss from the day before. He wished he hadn't promised not to kiss her, for he wanted nothing more than to do so. He hadn't anticipated that being away from her for only two days would leave him wanting for her company.

 _When have I started needing this girl,_ he asked himself.

They were interrupted by the kettle whistling, and Kaoru straightened up to prepare his bath. He stood up to retrieve a fresh set of clothes from his closet and went to the bathroom to run the water. He took the kettle from Kaoru and poured the water into the tub. Removing the rest of his clothes, he immersed himself in the water and let the warmth soothe his tight muscles.

He scrubbed himself clean, and once he was satisfied, he dried himself, dressing into his sleepwear. He went back into the bedroom in time to see Kaoru folding his dirty clothes into the laundry basket. He sat down at the edge of the bed, tired but not wanting to sleep yet. He wanted to talk with her a little bit more.

"What else happened while I was away?" he asked.

She tipped her head to the side. "Nothing much, really," she said. "Last night I had dinner with all of them. Lei and Mei were kind enough to help me understand some things, since most of them spoke in Chinese. Soong An was there," she added as an afterthought.

He frowned. Of course. Soong An would have made a big deal out of it in front of Ming. "I got angry with her," he said simply.

"About what?" she asked.

He sighed wearily. "She threatened to find out what the deal was between you and me because she couldn't believe you were my future wife. She said you were weak and that she hoped you wouldn't be my weakness as well."

She sat down on the bed beside him. "I told Ming you probably held back if all Soong An had to show for it were bruises," she said.

"I haven't lost my temper like that in weeks," he said. "But when she insulted you, I couldn't help it. I felt like she was insulting me as well, and I had to put her in her place."

"I don't want to be your weakness, Enishi," she said.

 _Might be a little too late for that,_ he thought. "I won't let that happen," he said.

"Well, I think it serves her right for running her mouth off like that," she muttered, and he chuckled at her unexpected show of vindication. She brightened up. "I told you Mei taught me some acupressure. I could try and ease your soreness a bit."

He shook his head, still smiling. "It will be gone by tomorrow," he told her. "Let's just lie down."

Once they were in bed, he reached out for her again and was pleased when she shifted closer to him without him having to tug her close. A part of him wished that she had missed his company as much as he missed hers. "I was a little bit lonely without you," she confessed in the darkness.

He gave a pleased grunt as he buried his nose in her hair, letting himself get lost in her scent. "I'll be around for the next couple of days."

"How did your work go?"

"I took four ninjas, tortured them to get information," he said. "You don't want to know the details of the torture." He wondered if she would be repulsed by this, but she remained soft and pliant in his arms.

"Did you get what you needed?"

"It's as I thought, they were hired by a third party, but they don't know who it was," he murmured. "They were contacted in Japan, brought here just to hit the syndicate. There was a middleman involved, someone in Japan, and I think that will be the link to whoever hired the ninjas. I'll brief Ming about it tomorrow."

"I'm glad you're okay," she said, sleep creeping into her voice.

He felt her intertwine her fingers with his hand, and he curled his fingers around hers, wondering if it was just her altruistic nature that caused her concern for him or if she was starting to have feelings for him the way he was definitely starting to fall for her.

"Of course you are," he said. "I did promise to take you back to Tokyo." He closed his eyes, wishing it was another promise he hadn't made. He wanted to keep her for himself.

He slept straight through the night, and it was already mid morning when he next opened his eyes. Kaoru was still in his arms, but by her uneven breathing he knew she was already awake and was probably only lying still so as not to disturb his slumber. He turned his face into her hair, causing her to turn and peer at him.

"You're finally awake?" she asked. "It's so late in the morning already."

"Time to get up, you lazy cow," he said, groaning as she elbowed him at the side right where he had a bruise.

"You're still sore. You said it would be fine by morning," she pointed out.

"It was fine until you elbowed me," he complained, sitting up and feeling his ribs. "I overslept."

"I didn't want to wake you since you got in so late last night," she said. She climbed out of bed and went to the bathroom to change.

Enishi changed as well, gingerly feeling his side. It was feeling better already but he was not eager to go out and work again so soon. Kaoru emerged from the bathroom, and they went to the mansion to see if there was still any breakfast left.

They found Mei in the dining room, and the doctor took one look at Enishi and smiled. "Slept in, I see," she said. "Everyone has had their breakfast but I can ask the cook to prepare something for both of you. Father will want to hear your report."

Enishi nodded, pulling out a chair for Kaoru before taking a seat himself. They had barely settled down when Ming appeared. He gave Enishi a quick look before sitting across form him.

"What happened with Soong An?" Ming asked.

Enishi shrugged. "I lost my temper. She couldn't keep her mouth shut. I told you I'd rather do the work alone, and I did."

Ming sighed like a father talking to a delinquent child. "What did you find out from your excursion?"

"It was as Mei suspected. A group of ninjas from Japan," Enishi said. "There were about twenty of them, but I suspect there may be more. They hit the Paoxing drug den and encountered our defense there. In the confusion of the attack, I accosted four of the ninjas and interrogated them but it was not so fruitful."

"What did you find out?" Mei asked curiously.

"They were hired by a middleman in Japan about three months ago," Enishi said. "They were paid cash up front, with the promise of more payment once the job was done. As for the identities of the ones who hired them, they were clueless, but their okashira is the one who knows." He paused. "The okashira wasn't among them last night, but I did find out where their hideout is. That is the only lead I have."

"Are they good at combat?" Ming asked thoughtfully, and Enishi knew the boss was already thinking of an assault plan.

"They are traditional ninjas," he answered. "They rely on stealth and surprise rather than open combat. They're decent in a fight but no match for the likes of me, Lei or Soong An. What is dangerous about them is their use of poisons to gain the upper hand in a fight."

"Where is their hideout?" Ming asked.

"A cave not far from the water town of Tongli," Enishi said. "But I suggest doing extensive reconnaissance before we move. We don't want to be caught in surprise. We should also review our defense here. I know our location is not known to people outside of the organization, but these ninjas appear to know a lot about us and we shouldn't take it for granted."

Ming nodded, still thoughtful. "Mei, can you handle the intelligence?"

"Of course," Mei said. "I will mobilize our agents."

Their food arrived on the table, and Enishi helped himself to a generous serving. If Mei was going to gather intelligence, it meant they would have about a week to wait for results. He made a mental note to review the defenses of their compound. There was another thing bothering him.

"Why hire assassins from Japan?" he said suddenly. "There are more than enough hired killers in China."

"Yes, but how many hired killers would agree to go against the Chinese underground?" Ming pointed out.

Enishi considered this, but he was not convinced. "There would be some that would, for a price," he said. "Mei, you should look at that angle as well."

"I will," she said.

Enishi ate in silence for a while, until Ming spoke again. "Enishi, Lei will be holding a bidding tomorrow for the new arms shipment that came in. A meeting with our priority clients will follow afterwards, which will probably extend to dinner."

"I'll attend," Enishi said, nodding. These biddings that extended well into dinner in the night were regular affairs within the organization, attended by most of the seniors. Mostly Ming used the opportunity to present a strong front for the organization, flaunting his senior members to their clients. Apparently Ming wanted to keep up appearances that everything in the organization was under control.

Having finished their meal, Enishi and Kaoru took their leave. Once they were back in their house, Kaoru headed for her bath, and Enishi sat down on the desk to review the list of clients the syndicate had. However, the peculiarity of the ninjas that attacked Paoxing kept coming back to his mind. Did it have something to do with his departure for Japan? The problems started at approximately the same time.

He was still deep in thought when Kaoru had finished her bath. He glanced at her, admiring the new dress that she was wearing. _I have excellent taste,_ he thought arrogantly. "You will be coming with me to the auction and the dinner tomorrow."

"Are you sure that's all right?" she asked doubtfully. "I thought I'm not supposed to know about syndicate business?"

"Of course it's all right. You're my partner. You're not some prisoner that I keep locked up in the house," he said. "Besides, you're not going to turn me over to the authorities, are you?"

She shook her head. "And lose my ticket back to Tokyo? No. Besides, I don't think you deserve that from me."

He gave a hard laugh at this. "You're too nice, Kaoru. Too giving. You should learn to be more selfish."

She sat down on the couch, giving him a measured look. "Well, maybe you can teach me," she said.

He planted his elbows on the desk and tented his fingers under his chin, matching her look. "I'm not that selfish," he said. "Everything I did wasn't for me, it was for my sister."

She fell silent, and he continued to look at her. He had never talked about Tomoe with anyone, he never needed to explain himself, but he wanted Kaoru to understand why he had gotten himself into this situation. He wanted her to see that he was not evil. Mean, ruthless, demanding, yes, there was a long list of deprecating words to describe him, but he needed those qualities to effect jinchuu for Tomoe.

"I know that," she murmured.

"Do you? You only know what Battousai told you," he said.

She came over and sat on the chair in front of the desk. "Then tell me yourself," she said, her eyes open and non-judgmental.

Enishi considered this for a moment. It was his chance to lay his true cards on the table, something he never did with anyone. The connection he was starting to feel with Kaoru was confusing, but not unwelcome. Since his sister died, he did not feel the need for anyone else, being occupied with only thoughts of revenge, but when he had done his reconnaissance on Battousai and saw how he lived in the Kamiya dojo, he felt the injustice done to him even more severely. Battousai had taken away his sister, yet now he lived so peacefully, not worrying about being killed when he slept, always knowing there was a home waiting for him, with people who cared for him and looked after him. When Enishi had taken Kaoru to the island, he was given a glimpse of that peace that Battousai seemed to have found in the company of Kaoru, and now Enishi couldn't deny that he wanted that company, perhaps even more so than Battousai did.

If Kaoru had found it in her heart to accept the hitokiri into her home after knowing all the terrible things he had done in the past, then Enishi couldn't help but think that he might be offered the same kind of acceptance that he hadn't craved for until now. But in order to accept him, she had to understand him first. She knew so little about him.

 _And yet she stays here by my side,_ he thought.

Her blue eyes searched his, and when he said nothing, her lips turned down in disappointment. "Maybe you can tell me about it when you're ready," she said.

"I want to tell you about it," he said, deciding. "I just don't know where to start. There are too many sordid details," he added wryly.

She was gently persistent. "It's not like we have anything else to do at the moment."

"My mother died giving birth to me. The first person I killed," he muttered. He shook his head. "Nee-san was eight years older than me, also just a child, but she took care of me. Our father worked most of the time so I barely saw him. I think maybe it was because she was forced to act like an adult at such a young age that nee-san always looked so serious. It didn't mean that she wasn't happy, though, because we were. She did her best to raise me and in return, I tried to be a good child."

He rested his arms on the table, looking at the back of his hands. "When she got engaged to Akira, I was angry. I was jealous, that I wasn't the sole receiver of her affections anymore, but a part of me was also relieved because I was worried that I was the only other person she had, and I was worried that I might fail in making her happy."

"When Akira was killed, my sister was devastated. It didn't help that the neighbors talked as well, saying it was partly her fault that he got himself killed. I woke up one morning to find her gone, with only a note left behind explaining that she was going to avenge Akira's death." He balled his hands into fists. "I was hurt, that she would leave me to do that crazy thing on her own. We were supposed to be family. We were supposed to help each other. Needless to say, I followed her. Tried to help her achieve her revenge. When she realized what I had done, she sent me away, to protect me, she said."

He laughed humorlessly. "To protect me, when I was supposed to be the one protecting her. The next time I saw her, she had Battousai's sword through her heart. She was already dead. The only think I had left was her last wish, that Akira's death be avenged. I wasn't able to protect her, but I can still make her happy, even if she's not here anymore. Jinchuu began that snowy morning. Everything I did from that day onwards was for my jinchuu." He gestured around him. "All this is for jinchuu. Jinchuu is for my sister. It was never about me."

He leaned back in his seat. "And even now, I fail to make her smile. Battousai is still alive, and I had to put jinchuu on hold because of this syndicate shit." He met her eyes, feeling a different kind of weariness setting in. "The longer I wait to complete jinchuu, the more I worry that nee-san will never smile again. I failed again."

He let out a long sigh as his head slid forward to bury itself in his hands. He had finally admitted it, his insecurities and doubts about himself, his inability to follow through with jinchuu, and his failure with regards to his sister. _After everything I have done, I am still inept._

He was not aware that Kaoru had moved, walking around the table, until he felt her sit on the edge of the desk right beside where his elbows were resting. She touched his shoulder, gently, then proceeded to stoke his head, her fingers running through his hair. Welcoming the contact, he let his head rest on her lap, his arm curling around her hips as she sat there before him.

"Enishi, I'm sure Tomoe doesn't think you are a failure," she said. "And I know you can still find a way to make her smile."

"Only with jinchuu," he murmured, not voicing out the other thought nagging at him. The completion of jinchuu demanded the life of Battousai. If he killed Battousai, then he was sure that Kaoru would hate him, no matter how kind-hearted she was. He wanted to make Tomoe smile, but he did not want Kaoru to hate him, either.

End of chapter.

* * *

Well, I posted this because I know you all like reading about Enishi and Kaoru together, so here you go. They didn't get much "together" time in the previous chapter.


	9. Chapter 9

I wasn't really planning on posting this so soon because I'm writing way ahead from what I'm posting, and I usually post an edited chapter after I've finished something substantial in my draft. But this is especially for fairyfemme and all those who wanted more "together time" lol. This, though short, is one of my favorite parts among what I've written.

* * *

Chapter 9

Kaoru looked at the display of sweets and felt her mouth water. Shanghai was a melting pot of different cultures, with heavy western influence. It was the first time she had seen chocolates, and when Enishi obliged her by buying a few pieces for her to try, she had decided that she liked the unusual dessert.

She straightened up, realizing that Enishi had disappeared from her side. _Where did he go off to?_ she thought irritably. _I thought he said he was going to look after me._

After his solemn narration of the beginnings of his jinchuu earlier, they had stayed in each other's company for a few minutes, and when she was afraid he was not going to snap out of his melancholic mood, she suggested that they do something fun. He almost immediately took her up on her suggestion, and that was how they ended up going into town.

She turned around, looking for his white hair in the crowd. She remembered stroking his head earlier, the feel of his hair between her fingers. His hair was different from the rest of him. Enishi's body was all hard muscle, his eyes and his face also resolute, but his hair was actually soft. She smiled at the thought.

He reappeared at her elbow after a few minutes, "Where were you?" she asked curiously.

"I was looking at something else at another shop," he said. "Have you eaten all of those chocolates?"

"Yes," she said, daring him to tease her about it.

He smirked as he took hold of her elbow. "Then you're not going to have much of an appetite for dinner," he said, leading her down a street.

"Dinner?" she repeated, looking up at the darkening sky. She realized, since they had both skipped lunch due to their late breakfast, that she was famished.

"There is a restaurant that is located on an old ship, it's one of the attractions of the city," he said, his eyes bright in the light of the setting sun.

He led her to the place he was talking about, and Kaoru could see that it was one of the more expensive places in town. The ship was anchored by the end of one dock, and the plank leading up to it was covered with plush carpet. There was a man standing by the top of the plank, receiving the diners, and Enishi gave him a few short words in Chinese before the man expressly led them to a table by the end of the deck. The man pulled out a chair for Kaoru as Enishi took the seat across from her.

Kaoru looked around, noting that more than half of the guests were foreigners. "Not many Chinese here," she said to him.

"No, this is one of the more high end places in Shanghai," he said.

"You come here often?" she asked, wondering if he had dined with other people here before. More specifically, if he had taken other women here before, for the way he was looking at her with his full attention made her feel oddly special, and she wanted to feel that way even for just a while.

"Yes. I like western food, and this is the best place to have it," he said.

"Did you go out a lot, when you were here in Shanghai?"

"Mostly just for business meetings. I come to this restaurant once a week, though, by myself. Sometimes members of the organization join me."

A server came up to take their orders, and Enishi took the liberty of ordering for both of them. Kaoru didn't mind, since she couldn't understand the menu, which was in English, and she wasn't the one paying for dinner anyway. As Enishi gave their orders, Kaoru gazed out into the night, welcoming the cool sea breeze caressing her cheeks.

When they were left alone again, she turned her attention back to her companion. "You live so extravagantly here," she said, thinking about her own simple life back in Japan.

He tipped his head to one side, thoughtful. "Yes. Considering that I came to Shanghai with nothing."

She considered how far he had come, knowing that he did many terrible things to get to where he was now. "What happened when you first got to Shanghai?"

Their food arrived, and Enishi gave a tight smile. "I did a lot of things that would quell your appetite if I were to tell you about it now. It's not pleasant. I'd rather we talk about you tonight."

She could feel herself blush. "Me? I think you already know a lot about me, Enishi. You did your research well."

"I know only what other people see," he said. "But it is the way you think that intrigues me."

"I can't see what would be so interesting about that," she said, starting to cut into her meat. She was already comfortable with the knife and fork. "I'm a pretty simple person."

"How could you invite someone like Battousai to live in your home?"

She carefully chewed her food before swallowing it, thinking about how to answer him. She knew from past experiences that whenever Kenshin came up, Enishi would come close to losing his temper. However, when she looked at him, sitting across the table from her, she could only see plain curiosity in his eyes with none of the underlying anger she knew he harbored for the other man.

"When I invited him to stay with me, I knew he was a hitokiri," she admitted. "However, the way he acted, the way he treated me, I saw none of that in him. All I saw was a wanderer who was trying to help people when he can. I suppose it's because I trusted him right away."

"Yes, I noticed you're quick to trust people," he said wryly.

She smiled, knowing he was thinking of how she had said she trusted him as well. "I think it's because the people I've been with have treated me well. I was orphaned at a young age, I was raised by my godfather. I suppose, compared to other people, I had an easier time."

He looked down at this, and she regretted her words, remembering how difficult his childhood had been. She leaned forward, intent on making amends. "I got lucky," she said. "I admit it's dangerous to trust people too quickly, but it's the way I was brought up. I was taught to see the good in people, and though at times it's not easy, in the end it somehow rewards me when I do."

"Yes, I suppose you got lucky," he admitted. "And how has your trusting me got you so far? Do you feel rewarded as well?"

She could see the humor in his eyes now, and she decided to answer in kind. "It hasn't been unpleasant," she said. "I actually got rewarded with a bag of chocolates today."

Her remark earned her an impish grin from him, though he said nothing. Kaoru matched his smile as she continued to eat. Though her answer was made in jest, it was still true. For several days now, she had been having a pleasant time. The only regret she had at the moment was that she was far from her friends, that they were most likely troubled by her long absence.

"I thought it was the least I could do to thank you for not making this more difficult for me," he said.

"I had no choice," she said. "My well-being here is dependent on yours. If I were to cause problems for you, then things would be more of a mess than they already are."

"True," he said. "But I did tell you the other day, though, that I already told Lei to take you back to Tokyo if something were to happen to me."

"I know, but if things were to come to a head here in Shanghai, I think you have a better chance of surviving than Lei," she confessed.

He looked proud. "That is also true, though Lei is a decent fighter himself."

"If he is, then why isn't he an enforcer like you? Why can't he do the job that you do?" she pointed out.

"Because he is nice," he explained. "His skill level matches Soong An's, but between the two of them Soong An is the one who has the audacity to keep people in line. She doesn't feel bad when she has to punish people. In fact, I think she takes pleasure in it."

"Like you?"

He shook his head. "I don't take pleasure in such things. I see them as a necessity, and in doing so, I feel no guilt either. Remember, everything I have here in Shanghai is just a means for me to arrange jinchuu. Jinchuu is the one that will give me pleasure."

She sat back, having finished her meal. The way Enishi's mind worked was complicated, but not hard to understand. He was certainly driven, and this same determination that had shaped him to be one of the most powerful men in the Chinese underground also caused him to doubt himself when things did not go according to plan, an insecurity that he expertly hid from everyone else. Since he was the best enforcer in the organization, exuding strength and power in everything that he did, nobody ever thought he had a weakness, but he was still human.

 _Tomoe is his strength, and also his weakness,_ she thought. She feared what would happen to him if, in the end, jinchuu would crumble down around him. She knew Enishi was strong, an even match for Kenshin, but the rurouni was far more settled having found his peace and he also had the support of numerous friends. All Enishi had was Tomoe.

"I hope, Enishi, that you will find other things to take pleasure in other than jinchuu," Kaoru said, keeping her smile neutral. "I'm not telling you to abandon jinchuu… it's too important to you, but I hope you will find other things to appreciate as well."

An odd look crossed his face as he looked at her, and she wondered if she had overstepped a line. However, he merely put aside his own knife and fork, pushing his plate away from him. "I'll think about that when jinchuu is finished," he said. "What do you do for your own pleasure?"

She was thrown off balance by his question. She had always looked after others, and that alone made her happy, knowing that she was needed by others. There was little that she did for herself. "I practice kendo," she said. "I enjoy going town and looking at the things in the market there."

"Doesn't seem like much," he said.

"It doesn't," she agreed. "What gives me most happiness is just being with my friends."

Their conversation ran into another hitch. He had taken her away from her friends and forced her to endure his sole company for so long. She wondered if Enishi was capable of feeling at least a little bit guilty, though she hadn't meant to take a dig at him with her last remark. _We really can't talk to each other without being reminded of the unusual situation we are in,_ she thought.

He gave a weary sigh as he turned his head to look at the darkness over the water. "I am sorry for taking you away from your home."

Kaoru was taken aback. It was the first time he had truly apologized to her, after more than a month of being in each other's company. He had changed, subtly, since their first day together. "I know it's only temporary," she said. "It I were another person, I'd probably be mad at you. But for some reason, I can't be angry with you. Maybe it's because I understand your reasons, maybe it's because I sympathize with you, but… I don't know, Enishi."

Kaoru thought she must have sounded like a complete idiot, so she tried again. "You did terrible things to me and my friends, but the truth is, it is not my wish to see you suffer. I do not wish for Kami-sama to kill you on the spot or to have you punished. Instead, I pray that you would find your own peace. I believe that anyone, no matter how horrendous his past deeds have been, deserves a chance at peace. It's only a matter of him wanting to take that chance."

"And that way of thinking is how you ended up with Battousai," he finished for her.

"And Megumi, Yahiko, Sano, and Aoshi," she added. "And you. I do consider you a friend, Enishi." It was a bold statement. Up until recently, she had only considered him as someone who was not her enemy, but after sharing much with him, she knew she had already crossed the boundaries into the realm of friendship. She didn't care if he felt the same way or not.

He raised both eyebrows at this, and she saw a glimmer of pleasure in his eyes. "Do you," he chuckled. "In that case, Kaoru, you'd be my first."

End of Chapter.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Enishi sat on the writing desk, a large leather bound book open in front of him. It was the record of their weapons sales. Lei was the one who updated it regularly, and Enishi had borrowed it to familiarize himself with the trend in the arms market in preparation for the bidding that was going to take place later. From time to time, though, his steely eyes would wander to Kaoru, who was sitting in front of the dresser, brushing her hair.

Their previous evening out ended on a positive note, with Kaoru telling him that she considered him a friend. It was more than what he asked for: he only wanted her to stop seeing him as a brute. To be considered a friend was something far more agreeable, especially when he considered her to be something more than that.

When she had told him to take pleasure in other things besides his jinchuu, he had almost told her that he had. When she talked about finding his own peace, he knew that he could find it with her. The problem was, she was the crux of his jinchuu, and until jinchuu was finished, he could not measure what kind of relationship he would be able to pursue with Kaoru. He could not just abandon jinchuu either, to do so would be to betray his sister. No, he would simply have to put his own interests on hold at the moment.

 _That doesn't mean I can't enjoy the time we have together,_ he thought satisfyingly, once more observing her as she gathered her hair into a ponytail. Suddenly, he remembered something, and he stood up, getting something from the pocket of the jacket he had on last night.

"I got you something yesterday," he said, approaching her and meeting her eyes in the mirror.

"Oh?"

He held out a silk ribbon for her. "I noticed you left most of your ribbons back in Japan."

Her face broke into a broad smile, and he felt proud of himself for remembering to get her something that she liked, even if it was on impulse. It was akin to what he felt when he was young and he managed to make Tomoe smile.

"Thank you," she said, taking it from him and immediately tying her hair up with it. "Ribbons are one of the luxuries I allow myself back home. I forgot to pack them when we left the island."

 _Such a simple luxury,_ he thought. _It's so easy to make her smile._

"Are you ready to go? We should be going to the auction house in a few minutes."

"Is there anything I need to know before we go? Like how to act in front of other people?" she asked.

He tipped his head to the side, considering her question. "Just don't speak unless spoken to," he said. "Most of the transactions will be done in Chinese and English, since our clients are from China and Europe, so I doubt anyone will strike a conversation with you. I'll be beside you all the time anyway. Lei will be handling the bidding. I'm just there to observe."

"And the dinner?"

He smiled impishly. "At least you've mastered how to use a knife and fork."

She gave him a mock scowl. "Don't leave my side," she warned him.

"I won't," he said. "The dinner is mostly just for Ming to do small talk with his favorite clients. Nobody usually talks to me. It's Mei, Yuan and Lei who have the temperament for public relations."

"I would hate to think how you would do with public relations," she said, rolling her eyes.

"Oh, I could be pleasant if needed," he insisted, taking her arm as they stepped outside.

"I've noticed," she muttered.

They met Lei outside the brothel, where a carriage was waiting. "Ming went ahead with Mei and Soong An," the tall man said, holding the door open for Kaoru. "Jiao won't be coming, Cheng and Yuan will be meeting us there."

Kaoru settled onto the seat next to Enishi, and Lei sat across from them. Lei was smiling. "Enishi, I must say, you're doing great at keeping up appearances. You've even got me convinced, and I know the truth."

"We will not speak of this, Lei," Enishi said firmly, unaffected by the teasing but worried that other people might overhear them.

"I will be handling the bidding, so you both can just sit pretty towards the back," Lei said.

"How many clients are we expecting to show up?" Enishi asked.

"Six or seven," Lei answered. "Three of them foreigners. They will also be joining us for the dinner afterwards. Ming thinks we should strengthen out partnership with foreign investors."

Enishi scoffed. "It would be hard to trust them. After all, they came to China with only the intention of finding wealth here. It would be hard to find a leverage on them since their own assets would be far away."

"Ming wants to expand."

"He always wants more money," Enishi said, frowning. "We disagree about the future of the syndicate, which is just as well since I am leaving anyway."

Lei was thoughtful. "What would you do, if you were in Ming's place?"

Enishi played with the tassel on his sword hilt, his eyes thoughtful. "The organization has grown in size over the past few years. Our assets, both solid and liquid, have increased dramatically. We need time to consolidate things first, make sure we can control what we have. We have grown prominent, naturally there will be other groups that are interested. Look at what is happening in the drugs division. We've lost five factories because we couldn't cover them. We shouldn't spread ourselves too thin. Ultimately, it's not a matter of how much we make, but how much we actually keep for ourselves."

"The drug raids were a big loss," Lei admitted.

"Has Mei had any progress with her investigations?"

Lei shook his head. "I haven't spoken to her."

"If she doesn't have anything in three days, you and I will go to Tongli to have a look."

They arrived at the auction house, and Enishi marched up the steps, keeping a possessive hand on Kaoru's waist. The guard let them in as soon as he saw Enishi, and they proceeded to the bidding room, which was a large circular area with a high vaulted ceiling. There were several rows of chairs that faced a podium.

Enishi stood by the back of the room, looking over the people that were already present. He immediately spied the three foreigners Lei had mentioned. He also recognized one of his regular clients, a Chinese that went by the nickname of Chiyo, who gave him a respectful nod.

Ming was there, seated on an ornate chair by the side of the podium. Mei was sitting on another chair beside him. Soong An and Yuan were standing together off to the right side of the podium, with Soong An holding her sword by her side. Cheng was by the door, looking over the guest list as people filed past him.

Lei made his way to the podium and cleared his throat. "Good evening," he said, his voice carrying over the entire room. "Welcome to all of you, we are here tonight to show you our latest acquisition of weapons and ammunitions. First, I will describe each of the items, and once I am done, we will proceed with the bidding. Cheng will be the one taking note of your bids."

Enishi tuned out as Lei began to go into details of the different kinds of firearms they had. Instead, he leaned close to Kaoru to explain to her what was happening. "Lei is going through the list of weapons and ammunitions. After that, the bidding starts."

She nodded, appearing to look interested in the proceedings. "You said this is where a lot of your money comes from?"

He nodded. "A lot of people buy weapons."

They watched Lei as he went through the inventory, eventually finishing his spiel. Soon, hands went up among the audience, and the bidding began. Enishi noted that most of the shipment was bought by the foreigners. They were increasing their presence more and more in Shanghai each day.

An hour later, the bidding was done, and Lei, Soong An and Cheng took charge of delivery matters for the different buyers. Ming stood up to go into the dining hall, followed by Mei. Enishi gestured to Kaoru that they should follow.

They sat down at one of the dining tables. There were about twenty people in all, so they filled up two large round tables. Enishi and Kaoru ended up sitting next to Ming, with Lei taking the seat on Kaoru's other side. Ming immediately struck up a conversation with him.

"That was quite a successful bidding," the organization's head said, rubbing his palms together. "I think we almost tripled our earnings."

"That won't be enough to cover for our other losses," Enishi said in a low voice. Ming was good at attracting clients for he had a large network of contacts, but when it came to handling the money, he was not as adept as Enishi or Heishin.

Ming waved his hand dismissively. "We can recover that," he said confidently.

"Yes, with a lot of work," Enishi replied crossly. He was mildly aware of Kaoru carrying on a conversation with Lei at his other side.

Dinner was served, and the syndicate and its guests all took a break from small talk to indulge in the feast. After a few minutes, Enishi turned to Kaoru. "Is Lei not boring you with his weapons speech?" he asked.

"No," she answered. "Although I think it's a shame that firearms are gaining too much popularity. I'm afraid that the traditional martial arts are going to be set aside."

"They probably will," he agreed. "But that would be good for Lei's business."

After they had had their dessert, Enishi looked around to see Chiyo at the other table with an empty seat beside him. He squeezed Kaoru's elbow. "I'm going to talk to one of my former clients. Do you want to come with me or will you be all right here with Lei?"

Kaoru looked up and shook her head. "I'll stay here," she said, giving him a reassuring smile.

Enishi stood up and strode to the other table, taking the empty seat beside Chiyo. The weapons merchant gave him a meaningful look. "Yukishiro Enishi. So the rumors weren't true, you didn't leave Shanghai."

"I left, but I came back recently," Enishi said.

"I noticed you weren't alone. Is that your girl?"

"My wife," he said, giving Chiyo a look that told the other man to change the subject.

"I see." Chiyo traced the rim of his glass with a finger. "I noticed we've got more foreigners at these bidding nights."

"Ming wants to expand," Enishi said.

Chiyo frowned. "They ended up getting more than me. You should let your former, more loyal clients first look at the shipments before opening the bidding to new ones."

"I don't run the show anymore," Enishi said. "But I'll let Ming know your sentiments."

"So why did you leave your pretty wife's side to talk to me?"

"I need information," Enishi said, knowing that the weapons merchant had a vast network of contacts as well. "About ninjas in Tongli."

Chiyo smiled. "I can't help you there."

"If you want me to rephrase the request, I can do it later when you're on your way home," Enishi said, a hard edge in his tone.

Chiyo lost his smile. "I just have hearsays," he said, clearing his throat.

"Let's hear them," Enishi said, leaning back in his seat and crossing his arms.

"There's an old cave system a few miles south of Tongli. My contacts say that there have been some signs of activity there. I don't know if it's the same group you are looking for, but these people that inhabit the caves, they don't really go out to cause trouble so no one bothers them back."

Enishi frowned. He already knew the location of the caves. It wasn't new information to him. "How many of them?" he asked.

"At least fifty," Chiyo said. "I actually had them under surveillance for a couple of weeks but they seem to keep to themselves so I left them alone."

"Have they been buying arms?"

"No."

Enishi thought about this for a while. "Have you been selling arms to anyone in Shanghai?"

"No, most of my sales are to the provinces in the west," Chiyo said. "Is the syndicate having a problem?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary," Enishi said smoothly. "We are having heavy competition with drug dealings."

"If it's drugs, it's more messy," Chiyo said. "That's why I stick to firearms. It's less money, but more controlled."

Enishi caught sight of Cheng dropping into his former seat at the other table, striking up a conversation with Kaoru. He frowned, knowing how forward Cheng can be when inebriated, and he knew Cheng had more than enough wine that dinner. Chiyo followed his line of sight and chuckled. "I think it's time for you to go rescue your wife," he said.

Enishi stood up and to his table, standing behind Kaoru's chair and laying a hand on her shoulder. "Sorry for leaving you," he said.

Lei looked up as well, noticing Cheng for the first time. He stood up to offer Enishi his seat. "Take my seat," he said easily. "I need to show some of our guests to the door anyway."

Enishi slid into Lei's seat, and Kaoru turned to him eagerly. "Have you finished your business?" she asked.

"He wasn't really worth talking to," he said, shrugging. "Are you ready to go back home?"

She nodded, giving him a polite smile. "Yes, I'm starting to feel tired."

They stood up as the rest of the dinner party was breaking up. When they got outside, though, they discovered it was raining.

"Oh, rain," Mei grumbled. "My new dress is going to get wet."

"Like it doesn't get wet when it gets laundered," Lei laughed, walking out and letting himself get caught in the light drizzle.

Enishi caught sight of their carriage, which was only across the street. He shrugged off his jacket, holding it above Kaoru's head to keep her from getting wet. "It's just a short walk to the carriage," he told her. "Let's go."

They crossed the street, with Kaoru huddled under Enishi's towering form, until they got to the carriage. Once they were seated inside, Enishi dropped his wet jacket on the seat across from him beside Lei, who was already drenched.

"How did you find the dinner?" Lei asked Kaoru.

"I couldn't understand what most people were saying," she admitted.

"That's because Lei is a rubbish language teacher," Enishi said, running a hand through his hair to shake some of the water off.

"I don't see you trying to teach her," Lei said.

"Kaoru's not going to be in China for long," Enishi said, reminding himself that he needed to finish sorting things out for the organization. He couldn't shake off the feeling that there was something more to this group of ninjas attacking their drug factories.

When they reached their home, Enishi got a towel to dry himself off as Kaoru changed into her night clothes. Enishi changed into dry clothes while Kaoru was in the bathroom, and he was already lying in bed when she came out.

"Something on your mind, Enishi," she observed.

"I was thinking that I do need to take Lei and myself to Tongli to have a look," he said, staring up at the ceiling. "Mei's intelligence is good, but I still prefer to see for myself before going in."

She lay down beside him, thoughtful. "Are you just going to have a look?"

"Yes."

"Will it be dangerous?"

"It's always dangerous in Shanghai," he answered vaguely.

"I'm worried," she confessed. "Ninjas are… sneaky."

"The sooner this problem gets resolved, the sooner we can return to Japan."

"I don't want you to get hurt."

Enishi blamed this on the numerous times she had seen Battousai fight and get injured. Then he realized that her words implied that she was concerned for him just as she had been concerned with Battousai before. "I go on excursions like this all the time," he told her. "This one is nothing different. I'm not going there to force a confrontation, I'm just going to have a look. I will only be gone for a day."

She murmured her assent. "All right."

"I'm good at what I do, you don't need to be worried," he promised her.

When she turned to him and hooked her hand around his arm in the darkness, Enishi made a mental note to be more careful than usual. It was different when he had someone waiting for him to come home.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11

Kaoru had just finished lunch, sitting with Enishi and Mei, when the girl sprung an unexpected invitation on her.

"Last night, at the dinner, one of our clients gave me several tickets to a play," she said, sipping at her tea. "Would you like to come with me, Kaoru? The tickets are for the women's section of the theater, so I can't ask anybody else to come with me except you and Soong An."

"A play?" Kaoru echoed, remembering the few times she had been lucky enough to watch some local plays in Tokyo.

Mei nodded. "It's in English. I don't know much English myself, but the production is supposed to be good and is worth seeing even if we can't understand every word. Besides, we do already have the tickets." She handed Kaoru a flyer which had a picture of a man and woman dressed in western attire, posing in front of a ship. "I think it's a love story."

Kaoru looked at the flyer while Enishi glanced at it from beside her. "It is," he confirmed, his tone suggesting that he found the entire concept ridiculous. "I will be busy preparing for my excursion tomorrow. You can have the night out if you wish."

Kaoru considered this. She was tentative about spending the night in town without Enishi, he was the one thing that made her feel secure, but she also didn't want to be fully dependent on him, hanging onto him every time he was there and moping around the house whenever he had to go out to do his work. She was surprised that he would let her go off as well, but then she had to remind herself that she was not joined at the hip with him.

"Then I will join you," she said to Mei, smiling. "I have seen some plays when I was in Japan but this looks like an elaborate production."

"It's by an English company that tours the world," Enishi said, still studying the flyer. "They will only be in Shanghai for three weeks."

"Excellent," Mei said. "We can have dinner there before we go into the theater."

Later, when they were alone in his house, she asked Enishi about it. "You're not worried about me going into town without you?"

He looked up from the newspaper he was reading. "You will be with Mei, she knows how to look after guests. I have already given Soong An stern warning about treating you well so you will have no problems with her either. You've had me for company for more than a month, I think you would appreciate being with other people as well."

"Are you tired of my company?" she teased him.

"Only as much as you're tired of mine," he said, smirking.

She shook her head, smiling. "I'm not, but I do miss talking to girl friends."

"Even if it is Soong An?" he asked, raising an eyebrow doubtfully.

"We will see," she said gamely.

"Well, I trust you know how to deal with it," he said, folding up the paper and tossing it onto his desk. "You're not exactly a pushover."

He walked over to her and handed her a coin purse with a good deal of Chinese money in it. "Knowing Mei, since she is the one who orchestrated this evening's events, she would be paying for everything. But this is so you have something with you as well, just in case."

By the time Kaoru was sitting at the restaurant across the theater with Mei and Soong An, she had more than enough times to remind herself that she was no pushover as Enishi had said. Mei was pleasant company, but the haughty face of Soong An sitting across the table from her seemed to tell her that she had no place in Shanghai. However, the swordswoman refrained from saying anything offensive to her so Kaoru just decided to enjoy the evening as best as she can. Mei was engaging enough, and she liked hearing the older girl's stories about growing up in the organization.

She was surprised to learn that, being almost the same age, Mei and Enishi had grown up together. "We did," Mei confirmed. "He came to us about ten years ago, I was learning medicine from the organization's resident physician at that time. Enishi was hired by my father to be my bodyguard but he proved to be good with money and people so he ended up having more work than just protecting me. My father thought it was a waste of time not to use his talents."

"He is very skillful," Kaoru agreed.

"It's not just skill, it's his attitude," Mei said somewhat thoughtfully. "He just knows what to do in order to get what he wants. I don't think I've ever seen him at a loss. His departure from the organization will be a big deal to father."

"Surely there are other people to step up?" Kaoru asked.

Soong An nodded her head at this. "It would either be Lei or Mei."

Mei giggled. "Father even had this idea once to marry me off to him to seal the future of the syndicate but Enishi immediately put his foot down. I had to refuse as well- I can't marry if it's not for love. Father probably thinks the organization is doomed."

"If you keep thinking that way, then it is indeed doomed," Soong An admonished her. "Sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the good of the organization."

"Like the sacrifices you make?" Mei asked Soong An. "I'm not ready to do those kinds of things."

Kaoru looked curiously at Soong An, and Mei explained. "Soong An has had to refuse potential husbands because of her work with the syndicate. In fact, when she came to us, she was almost engaged, but she had to break it off because the man was a writer and he couldn't be trusted enough to be brought into syndicate affairs."

Kaoru's eyes widened, and in spite of herself, felt sorry for the girl. Soong An shrugged. "If he had exposed me and the organization, I would have gone to prison, and the syndicate would have been compromised. Syndicate matters stay within the syndicate, so you should be thankful for the leniency Ming has shown you, Kaoru."

"Well, Kaoru hasn't threatened us," Mei said, nodding to Kaoru. "And I don't think Enishi would just allow her to be killed. Honestly, Kaoru, I'm surprised he allowed you out of his sight tonight."

"I think he understands how lonely it is for me to always be at the house," Kaoru said.

"It would be boring, since you have no other work to do," Mei murmured. "The rest of us, we all have our jobs to keep us occupied, but not you. If you want something to do, you can join me tomorrow. I have to see several deliveries of medicine to a few clinics at the outskirts of the city."

"I might join you," Kaoru said, knowing that Enishi will be out the entire day anyway.

Mei nodded happily. "Good. It's so boring to go around by myself. Soong An is meeting some of our intelligence operators for lunch and cannot come with me. Jiao is still busy trying to salvage whatever assets we have left at Paoxing. Yuan and Cheng are busy with their own divisions. At least the silk and tea trade are doing well."

"I haven't met Jiao yet," Kaoru said.

"Oh, he doesn't like meeting people," Mei said. "His face was scarred badly when he got caught in an accident when he was mixing drugs. He doesn't show himself unless necessary."

"Your organization is full of interesting people," Kaoru said.

"It takes a lot of effort to keep it running, but we do work well together," Mei said. "Do you have family left in Japan?"

"No, my father died when I was young, and I was raised by my godfather. I have some close friends, though, that are like family to me."

"I suppose that is what happens when you don't have real family, your friends become your family," Mei said. She nodded towards Soong An. "Most of us in the organization have lost our families as well, and though we do not seem to, we do consider each other as family. You've been in Shanghai for a week, Kaoru, but I see you are important to Enishi. For this reason, please consider yourself a part of our family as well."

Kaoru practically blushed at Mei's graciousness, especially since she was only carrying on a show with Enishi. "Thank you," she murmured. "I do appreciate your kindness."

"A lot of people think that we in the syndicate are unscrupulous and immoral," Mei said. "Perhaps they are justified to think so, since we do deal with arms and drugs. But we do follow some code of honor as well. We respect our seniors, and we protect each other."

They finished their dinner and the three of them strolled to the theater across the street. There was a long queue at the door, but when the doorman saw Mei standing at the sidewalk, he waved for them to go through. Kaoru fought off the smirk trying to break across her face. Apparently being in the company of the underground's first lady did have some advantages, sometimes.

"Good evening, Miss Mei," the man said. "I did not know you would be watching tonight."

Mei handed him the tickets. "I was given these tickets to the women's section."

"It's right at the front row, just walk along the aisle and someone else will assist you once you are inside."

Mei thanked him, and the three of them entered the darkened theater. "That is Gongli," she told Kaoru. "I watch theater a lot so he knows me by now."

They took their seats, and Kaoru watched as more people filed inside to fill up the rest of the theater. After a few minutes, the lights dimmed further, and the play began. There was a live orchestra accompanying the actors, and while Kaoru couldn't understand the English dialogue, she was nevertheless mesmerized by the lights and the music. Two hours later, the play reached its conclusion, and when the lights came back on, Kaoru saw that Mei was laughing silently.

"What is it?" she asked, thinking if the play had ended on a happy note. She doubted it. It was a love story that ended up with the lovers eloping and getting themselves killed. Of course it was worse for her. They ended up with the girl falling overboard the ship and the man trying to save her unsuccessfully.

"I didn't understand what they were saying, but it seems stupid to get yourself killed while eloping," the girl said.

Kaoru laughed as well. "I suppose sometimes, life could be so tragic."

Even Soong An looked amused. "Life is tragic enough. Plays should have happier endings for those of us who need it once in a while."

They exited the theater, and when they searched for their carriage, Mei gave another laugh. "Well, it was nice of the boys to come and fetch us."

Kaoru followed her eyes and saw Enishi right beside their carriage, standing straight with his arms crossed, with Lei sitting at the driver's seat. "Maybe it's because the play finished really late," she said.

"It's just nearing midnight," Mei said, glancing at the watch she was carrying. "I was hoping to buy some snacks on the way home."

They approached the two men and Kaoru looked up at Enishi. "We weren't expecting you," she said.

"It's late," he said, opening the door for her and helping her get inside. He waited for Mei and Soong An to climb in before closing the door behind them, walking to the front to ride with Lei.

"He was actually being a gentleman," Soong An muttered, and Kaoru remembered the way Enishi had manhandled Soong An days before.

"I know," Mei said. "He never opened doors for us before."

The carriage began to move, and when they were riding along at a comfortable pace, Mei slid the window open and called out. "Lei, I want to stop by a store to buy some snacks."

There was a pause, and Kaoru could hear Lei and Enishi talking outside. Then Lei called back. "Enishi says it's too late."

Mei sat back, scowling prettily. Kaoru smiled, remembering what Mei said about them being like a family. It reminded her of her own set of friends. Wanting to help the girl out, she touched Mei's knee. "Tell Lei we want to buy some chocolates."

Mei leaned out the window again. "We want to buy some chocolates!"

There was another pause, and Kaoru felt the carriage change direction. "Fine, but Enishi says to make it quick."

Mei slid the window shut, satisfied. "Well, I never would have believed it, but I've actually seen it."

Kaoru raised her eyebrows. "Believe what?"

Mei smiled broadly. "The tiger has been tamed."

* * *

Enishi buttoned up his jacket and checked his watou, glancing at Kaoru who was still sleeping in bed. It was not even five in the morning, but he did want to travel in the darkness so he had to settle for four hours of sleep. He wondered if he should wake Kaoru, but knowing she had an equally late night as him, decided against it.

 _Too bad, I could do with another kiss,_ he thought smugly, his hand on the doorknob.

Just as he was about to turn the knob, Kaoru stirred, and he looked back at her, waiting to see if she would wake. When her eyes remained closed, he sighed quietly. Making up his mind, he went to the writing desk, getting a piece of paper and writing a note to Kaoru telling her he was going without waking her up. It felt odd since she knew he was going early anyway, but he didn't feel right just leaving her without any word. He left the note beside the bag of chocolates she had bought the previous night, where he knew she would see it.

He met Lei outside the brothel, and the two of them mounted their horses and rode southwards. Neither of them spoke, not requiring the small talk that some people found comfortable. To them, it was just another day at work.

They reached the outskirts of Tongli and they stepped off the path, tying up their horses behind some trees where they would remain hidden. Enishi slung his watou over his shoulder while Lei checked his sword by his side. Enishi also got a scope from his saddlebag, wanting to take a look from a distance. The last thing he wanted was to be caught by the ninjas.

"The cave lies near the river delta," Enishi said. "There is a ridge right across the river where we can take a good look at the entrance."

"What do you hope to find, anyway?" Lei asked, following Enishi as he led the way. "Mei's people already explored the area."

Enishi climbed the ridge, lying down flat on his stomach so that his silhouette was hidden. He put the scope up to his eye and focused on the cave entrance. He didn't know exactly what he had hoped to find, but he didn't want to rely on intelligence without seeing the place himself beforehand.

"I wanted to see the place for myself because I know we will be going in to fight," Enishi said. "The cave's entrance is small, and judging from the terrain surrounding it, the place would be cramped, unless they have dug underground to find more space. It will be dark, and that works to their advantage."

"Yes, ninjas rely on sabotage and subterfuge," Lei said, lying down belly flat on the ground like Enishi. "How many did you say we are expecting?"

"Around forty, I suppose," Enishi said.

"I can easily mobilize fifty men for the attack," Lei said. "We have more than enough firearms."

Enishi considered this. "Ninjas can kill from twenty paces away with their projectiles, but if up against guns, I doubt they can do much." Perhaps he was worrying too much about this. "Have two boats ready as well. They are right by the river. We might need to pursue some of them off land."

He focused the scope on the foliage around the cave entrance. Most of the grass had been flattened, indicating that there had been a lot of traffic going back and forth. Other than that, there were no other signs that there were people in the area. He put down the scope and studied the landscape before him, his eyes narrowing in focus.

"Enishi, why are we even doing this scouting? You don't do this kind of thing." Lei looked at his senior closely. "What are you really thinking?"

Enishi gripped the scope in his hands. "This trouble started after I left for Japan. I have been thinking if it has something to do with that."

"Is it because these ninjas are from Japan?" Lei asked.

He nodded. "How could they know about the syndicate? I have only started to contact potential clients and suppliers there, and setting up a series of safehouses. I haven't started business yet."

"They could only know about the syndicate if someone had told them," Lei said.

"The only people who knew I would be going away are the seniors," Enishi said.

Lei looked uncomfortable. "Enishi, if you are saying that someone in the inner circle is responsible for all this… You know Ming hates it when we have internal tiffs. And everyone who has been accepted into the senior rank has proven himself loyal."

"Where is Jiao?" Enishi asked, his voice rigid. "I have been here a week and I have yet to see him. I find it unusual he's not around considering it's his division that is having this problem."

"Jiao is our boots on the ground. He's been splitting his time going around all our drug dens," Lei said. "You know Jiao hates hanging out at the compound. Do you suspect him?"

"Yes," Enishi said. "And Heishin."

Lei chuckled. "You have always hated Heishin. I sometimes wonder why Ming put you to work with him as your partner."

"Because that piece of shit lacks any semblance of strength or force that he needs me to compensate for it," Enishi said. "Heishin is intelligent, though. I only suspect him because these ninjas are from Japan. But…"

"What?"

"I already told Heishin that he will take over my assets when I leave the syndicate, so he stands to double his money. I don't see any reason why he would move to destabilize the syndicate, because if the syndicate goes down, so does his money, and it's a lot of money."

"I would advise against putting these thoughts before Ming until you have more evidence," Lei said.

"As for evidence….."

"What are you planning to do?" Lei asked a little nervously.

"I'm going to look at Heishin's and Jiao's bank accounts tomorrow."

Lei chuckled. "I'm not even going to ask how you're going to manage that, as bank accounts are private."

"I've done it before,"Enishi muttered.

They sat there for another hour, during which they saw two men go out of the cave only to return after half an hour with some packages, which were probably their food for the day. After waiting a few more minutes, Enishi admitted to himself that it was beginning to look like a waste of time. He folded up the scope and replaced it in its case.

"Let's head back," he said.

"Good, I'm starting to feel hungry," Lei said. "It's almost lunch time."

They rode back to the compound, and when Enishi reached his house, he was surprised to find it as empty as the bag of chocolates Kaoru had bought last night.

 _She has such a sweet tooth,_ he thought, seeing a note on his desk with Kaoru's neat writing, telling him that she had gone out with Mei. _Out with Mei? Probably doing deliveries._

For the second time, Enishi was left at home while Kaoru was doing something. He didn't mind, though. When he had first taken her to Shanghai, he was uncertain of how the organization was going to receive her and how she was going to acceptthe fact that she would be living with members of the Chinese underground. Now that things have somewhat settled down for both of them, he knew Kaoru would be able to handle herself without being permanently latched on to him and he knew the organization tolerated her presence and did not see her as a threat.

He made his way to the main house at the back of the compound. Having skipped breakfast earlier, he was hungry for lunch. He strode into the dining hall and found Ming there. He sat down at Ming's right, his usual seat, and helped himself to lunch.

"How was your trip this morning?" Ming asked.

"It was fruitless," he answered, not bothering to mention his suspicions. Until he had something more solid to go on with, he wasn't going to bother Ming with it. "Lei is confident we have superior arms so taking them down shouldn't be a problem."

"That is what I thought," Ming said, sipping his glass of red wine. "We will be having a meeting tonight in the library to listen to my daughter's report. We might be able to make a move in two days."

Enishi nodded. Tomorrow he was going to the bank to view Heishin and Jiao's accounts. From experience, Enishi knew it was easy to hide a paper trail, but there was always a money trail to uncover in every situation. In their business, it was impossible to move without moving money as well. It would probably take him all morning to finish his business at the bank, and then he would have the afternoon to get in a few hours of training.

After lunch, he decided to put in some hours worth of practice. He saw that Lei and Soong An were also in the training area, but he gave them no notice as he stripped off his top, hanging it on the branch of one tree before unwrapping his watou. He gripped the sword with his right hand, turning his wrist, testing his flexibility. He went through some katas, feeling the control he had over his entire body. He was only dimly aware of Lei and Soong An sparring with each other at the other end of the clearing.

He trained for a few hours, and only when he felt the sun start to go down over the horizon did he stop. He sheathed his sword, looking at the clearing. Lei and Soong An had long gone, Soong An probably preparing her report for that night's meeting. He walked back to his house, noting with irritation that Kaoru has not come back yet.

 _She was already out until late last night, and now she's out again the whole day,_ he thought, throwing his dirty shirt into the laundry basket and stalking to the kitchen to heat some water for a bath, shoving the kettle onto the fire, not knowing why he felt so cross.

He dropped onto the bed while waiting for his water to heat up, not noticing his exhaustion catch up with him as he nodded off to sleep.

End of chapter.

* * *

Note: Sorry for the long break. Work came up. ^^ Thank you for all your reviews!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12

Kaoru quietly opened the door and let herself in. It was already past six in the evening. She did not know it would take her and Mei the entire day to make the rounds of the clinics around Shanghai, but Mei always got held up before leaving each clinic when the clinic's doctors insisted that they share some snacks before leaving. Thus, she was full, and she didn't think she could even clear enough space to have dinner that night.

She was surprised to see Enishi fast asleep in bed, and she tiptoed her way through the house, noticing that he had left the kettle on in the kitchen on top of a dying fire. _Was he hoping to take a bath then fell asleep?_ She looked at his face, which was so different sleeping from when he was awake. Asleep, he looked kinder. His mouth was relaxed and his eyes were closed, hiding the pointed glare that was his usual expression.

She took the kettle off the fire. It was still hot. She will just reheat it for him when he awoke. When she set the kettle down beside the stove, he stirred. "Kaoru?"

She came closer to him. "I just got back," she said. "I noticed you heated water. Do you want me to prepare a hot bath for you?"

He sat up in bed, sitting cross-legged, and squinted at her. "About time you got home," he muttered.

"I didn't know Mei was going to take so long going around," Kaoru said, feeling a little annoyed that he was actually keeping tabs on the time and forgetting that he was concerned about her safety.

"Dinner will be served soon. We will be going to the mansion after I have my bath," he said, swinging his legs down from the bed. "There will also be a meeting of the seniors in the library after dinner, which you're welcome to join."

"Oh, Mei and I had so much to eat today, I thought I would skip dinner," she said.

"You'll miss dinner?" he asked, and she couldn't understand why he looked at her so crossly.

"Yes," she said. "And I will skip the meeting, too. I feel embarrassed being taken into Ming's confidence so much when all we are is a charade. I'm not a real member of the organization, anyway."

"You're not a real member, but you spend the entire night last night and the entire day today hanging out with Mei?"

"Well, last night you said it was okay, and I thought you'd be away the whole day today, anyway," she said, her annoyance becoming full-blown at his contemptuous tone so she brought up something which had irked her the whole day. "Besides, you left this morning without waking me up."

He looked at her in disbelief. "I let you sleep in as a favor. And I left you a note."

She put her hands to her hips. "I left you a note as well. Didn't make things any better, did it?" she shot back.

"Mind your tone," he warned her.

"I would if you mind yours," she said, her temper matching his. "I'm not the one who started out being cross. What is your problem, Enishi? Is it because I had fun with other people today? Because I'm not as dependent on you as I was before?"

The way the veins in his neck stood out as he clenched his fists seemed to tell her that she hit the nail right on the head. However, he wasn't backing down. "Dependent on me? If it weren't for me, Kaoru, you would be dead, or worse," he jeered.

"If it weren't for you, I wouldn't be in this situation in the first place," she hissed. She had her hands on her hips, but she may as well have slapped him with her words for it was the first time she had blamed him for everything.

He grabbed her by the arm, and she looked up at him, still angry, wondering if he was going to strike her. His face was severe, his lips parted in a silent snarl, his eyes boring into hers as he contemplated something. They stood that way for several seconds but it felt like hours to her as she wondered if he was going to hurt her. Then with a scoff, he let her go, picking up the kettle and going into the bathroom, slamming the door behind him with such force that she flinched.

Kaoru looked at the closed door, still angry. _What was his problem? I didn't do anything wrong yet he was so cranky the moment he woke up._

She walked over to the desk, sitting down and unfolding that day's newspaper, wanting to read something to take her mind off the argument she just had with Enishi and to hide her face once he was done with his bath. She didn't have to wait long. Enishi emerged from the bathroom, and she resolutely held the broadsheet up in front of her, refusing to acknowledge him.

After a few minutes, she felt him leave the house, giving the door a firm shut behind him. Kaoru lowered the newspaper and looked around at the empty house. She sighed. She knew she had a temper, but she never knew she would have the audacity to flaunt it in front of Enishi. Now that he was not around, she could feel a cold knot start to form in the middle of her stomach.

She thought about everything that had happened that day. She woke up alone in bed, and that was what upset her initially. Enishi's note, left beside her chocolates, told her he had gone out very early, so she had resigned herself to the fact that she was not going to be seeing much of him that day. She had spent the day with Mei, although towards the afternoon she had been feeling more and more eager to go home to Enishi. When she had gotten home, she was surprised to find him irritable with her.

Her lips turned down as she replayed the words they had said to each other, particularly her last words. She cringed when she remembered the brief look of hurt that crossed his eyes before his anger reasserted itself. _I don't really blame him_ , she thought. _Well, it is his fault, but I don't blame him._

She walked over to the couch, sitting on it and tucking her knees under her chin. She hadn't done anything wrong, but she shouldn't have lost her temper, either. Enishi was a complex man, and he must have had his reasons for being upset earlier. Again, she remembered the last words she had said to him, blaming him, and she felt herself start to cry silently. _I didn't want to hurt him. I'm so sorry, Enishi._

She wiped at her tears with her wrists, deciding that she would just go to bed and hopefully be asleep when Enishi returned. She knew dinner would take about an hour, and the meeting would go on for another hour or so. She washed up and changed into her night clothes, climbing into bed.

However, sleep would not come to her, for her mind was filled with thoughts of Enishi and what he would do with her. She had definitely angered him tonight, and she knew she was not going to get away with it.

She did not know how much longer she lay there, but she was still wide awake when she heard the door open and Enishi came in. She squeezed her eyes shut, feigning sleep, and she felt him walk to the bed, probably to look at her. She forced herself to breathe evenly, even if she wanted so much to see the expression on his face.

She felt Enishi move to his side of the bed, and the mattress shifted as he slid under the covers. Her heart began to sink when she realized her was not going to talk to her, that she was not going to get any reaction from him at all. She wondered if she should swallow her pride and make the first move when she felt his hand touch her wrist in the darkness.

"Are you awake?" he asked, and she could not hear any trace of anger in the silkiness of his voice.

"Yes," she whispered back.

He sighed as he moved over to her side of the bed until her back was against him and his lips were right beside her ear. "I'm sorry for the way I treated you tonight," he said.

"Why were you so upset with me?" she asked him.

There was a long moment of silence before he spoke. "I was afraid," he admitted. "That your growing friendship with Mei would replace your friendship with me, because you seem a lot happier being with her. I wanted you to need _me_."

She then understood. It was similar to how he felt when his sister had gotten engaged to Akira. In Enishi's world, where he had so few friends, he was afraid of being left behind. "Enishi, I will always be your friend," she said. "But I do have other friends too, you know."

"Yes, well, I never said what I was feeling was rational," he replied somewhat irritably, and Kaoru smiled. Enishi's moments of humility were rare and short-lived.

She settled against him, welcoming his warmth at her back after missing it the entire day. "I'm sorry for what I said earlier," she said. "I don't blame you."

"I'm sure a part of you does," he said seriously. "I don't mind."

She felt sad when she heard this. "Maybe," she admitted. "It's complicated, our friendship."

"A month ago we weren't even friends," he pointed out. "Who knows what we will be a month from now?"

Her breath hitched as he hinted at the possibilities. She had always thought that she was in love with Kenshin, but here she was with Enishi, being affected by every little thing that he said and did. She was inexperienced when it came to love between a man and a woman, therefore she did not know whether the cold fist in her stomach when she knew Enishi was angry with her or the disappointment she felt when starting the day without seeing his face upon waking were signs that she was falling for him. She cared for him, she was certain of that. But was it the same care that she had for her other friends?

"I don't know," she answered, twisting her head around so that she was nose to nose with him. "But I don't like fighting with you."

"You are the only person in the world who can make me back down in an argument," he said.

She smiled. "I didn't think you could swallow your pride like that."

He wasn't pleased with her statement. "Don't tell anyone. I still have a reputation to maintain."

There it was again. Little things he said and did that made her feel special. She couldn't help herself. She leaned close to give him a kiss on the cheek. She figured she might as well reward his brief moment of unpretentiousness. "That was the kiss you would have gotten this morning had you woken me up," she told him.

He was smug. "I still got it, didn't I?"

"I won't be so generous next time."

"Is it a rule, then? That I wake you up each time I have to go?"

"Yes."

"Okay."

* * *

Enishi sat down in front of the desk of the bank manager, his legs crossed and the fingers of his hands tented together in front of his chest. He had just transferred the bulk of his money from his syndicate account to his private account, and he was waiting for the bank manager to give him a hard copy of the transaction. The manager had stepped into another room to have the records printed.

"I have never really been inside a bank before," Kaoru, seated next to him, confessed.

"You keep all of your money at home?" he asked her.

"Well, I never have too much money at one time, I just get a steady income from my teaching," she said. "So I just keep it at home."

"Keeping it in a bank is safer, and sometimes you can ask the bank to invest it for you so your money actually works for you while it's in the bank," he said. "I do that, sometimes. It's one of the more legal ways I earn my money."

She shook her head. "I have no aptitude for investments."

"You can pay someone to do it for you," he insisted. "Of course, you need to find someone trustworthy, who won't steal your money."

"Do you pay someone?"

"No, I invest it myself, I know how to read the market," he said. He paused. "Remind me to teach you, someday."

She wrinkled her nose. "I'd rather not. Maybe you could just invest it for me."

He grinned, partly because he was glad that she considered him a part of her future, and partly because playing with money was one of the things he liked to do. It was satisfying starting out with a modest sum and moving it around the market the right way and watch it grow in amount. It was a good mental exercise for him and materialistically rewarding as well.

"If that's what you want," he said, thinking that he could not really deny her anything. He hoped she would never ask him outright to abandon his jinchuu.

The bank manager returned and handed him a record of his transaction. Enishi folded up the piece of paper and tucked it into his jacket pocket. "Will that be all, Mr. Yulishiro?" the manager asked.

"No, I have other business," Enishi said, leaning forward. "I want to look at the accounts of two of my associates."

The manager was hesitant. "This bank prides itself on maintaining its clients and their transactions confidential."

"I know that," Enishi said. "But I also know that you did this for me two years ago when I needed to check the accounts of my subordinates. It took you a lot of convincing then. Don't let me go to such lengths now if you want to avoid any inconveniences on your part."

He stared hard at the manager, who sighed. "Mr. Yukishiro, you are one of my most valued clients. Our bank will always be happy to assist you. Which accounts do you wish to view?"

Enishi gave Heishin's and Jiao's account details and waited patiently while the manager stood up again to get his records. Kaoru gave him a curious look. "What did you do last time?" she asked.

He grimaced. "If you really want to know… I had his mistress raped."

Kaoru's mouth formed a silent "o" and Enishi pushed his glasses up his nose. He knew she was aware that he had done many misdeeds in the past, and though he wanted her to see him in a better light, he wasn't about to sugarcoat his life. He sighed. "Well, he _was_ cheating on his own wife, and the other girl was a whore anyway."

Kaoru clamped her mouth shut, and he smirked. "Kaoru, I think it's better if you don't ask details. None of them are pretty, and I'm not going to lie to you."

"I know that," she said. "But I do want to see how you worked in Shanghai, and not just a…" Her voice trailed off.

"Not just someone who wants to carry out jinchuu?" he finished for her.

She nodded. "Yes."

He tipped his head to one side and looked at her. "Fine. After we're done here, I'll take you with me to the arms warehouse. I'll show you the weapons I used to sell before I gave it over to Lei."

After a few minutes, the bank manager came back carrying Heishin's and Jiao's books. Enishi quickly glanced at the numbers, starting with transactions done as far back as six months ago. Jiao's account looked to be in order, with regular deposits of money twice a month. That would be the revenues he got from the drugs.

Heishin's account was more complicated. Since Heishin practiced money laundering like him, there was more movement of money. However, when Enishi compared the amount being moved around in the past six months to the pattern that was already there the previous year, he could not find anything out of the ordinary either.

Quickly, he snapped the books shut and tossed them onto the bank manager's table, frowning. The manager was nervous. "Did you get what you needed, Mr. Yukishiro?" he asked.

"Yes," he said. "I look forward to the next time I do business with you, Hanzou."

Holding out a hand to Kaoru, they stood up and exited the bank. The wheels in his head were turning, but they were not getting him anywhere. Same as the excursion he had done in Tongli, his trip to the bank did not reward him with anything, either.

"You're upset," Kaoru said.

Her voice brought him back to the present. "Yes. I was hoping to find some evidence against Heishin or Jiao. I think one of them has something to do with this mess, but until I have some evidence, I can't talk to Ming about it."

"Is it because the ninjas came from Japan?" Kaoru asked.

He nodded. "Do you much about ninjas?"

"Only that they rely on stealth," she said. "I know a few ninjas, the Oniwabanshu, from Kyoto. One of them, Aoshi, used to work for a drug and arms dealer before he decided to go straight. He and his men were hired by a man named Kanryuu. Aoshi agreed to the deal because he and his men had nowhere else to go once the revolution had ended."

"Which I think might have been the same arrangement with these ninjas," Enishi said. He idly wondered what would happen to him after jinchuu was finished, what sort of life he could have with his peculiar skill set. "Ryukage, that's the clan's name. I wish I had more contacts left in Japan to do some digging up for me, but your friends have conveniently disposed of the comrades I had established there."

She rolled her eyes. "Well, if I wasn't your prisoner and if my friends aren't mad at you, I could easily write to Aoshi and Misao and ask them to investigate but I suppose that's out of the question."

Instead of answering with a retort, he reached around her waist and pinched her at the exact spot where he knew she was ticklish. A half giggle escaped her throat as she squirmed out of his reach. He allowed himself a smile, relieved that after the argument they had last night she was back to her normal self, complete with her dry sense of humor. He had never felt so despondent, save perhaps the time that he had lost his sister years ago, as he sat through last night's dinner and meeting without her.

She quieted down as she fell into step beside him again. "Seriously though, Enishi. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"You do enough," he said mildly, taking her by the arm.

They reached the warehouse the syndicate used to store its weapons, and Enishi gave a curt nod to one of the men standing guard. They were immediately let through, and they walked into a large room filled with crates and boxes.

Kaoru looked around wide-eyed. "This is a lot," she said.

"A few years ago, most of our clients were local, people who engaged in business equally shady as ours," he said, walking over to one of the crates. "Guns were bought for their own protection. Over the last year, more westerners have come in, buying guns to use as they explore lands on this side of the world."

He took a revolver from one of the boxes, showing it to Kaoru. "There are many types of guns. This is a revolver. It's small enough to be concealed under ordinary clothes."

She took the gun from him, and he felt odd seeing her small hands handle the weapon. "I have seen guns before," she said. "Our police use rifles, and I have seen a gatling gun up close before."

"Ah, the gatling gun," he said. "Fires four hundred rounds a minute. But do you know that the man who invented the gatling gun actually did so with the intention of lessening casualties in a battle?"

"Really?" she asked. "I suppose it's the same with any weapon. It's the person who wields it that determines if it is good or bad."

"You and your philosophy," he said almost fondly. He took the revolver back from her. "This doesn't suit you."

"The gun?" she said.

"This life," he corrected her, gesturing to the entire warehouse. "Some people were born to thrive in the underground: me, Lei, Soong An… and even Mei, who possesses a shrewdness underneath her courteousness. But you, you are just too… "

"Naïve?" she asked skeptically.

"In a way," he said, walking over to another box to inspect a carbine that was shipped from France. "You are too nice. You befriend everyone. In the real world, people would find it so easy to take advantage of you."

"I can say you're the exact opposite," she said, leaning against a crate and cocking her head at him. "You are too mean and callous that people find it so difficult to befriend you and you end up alone even when you're surrounded by a lot of people."

"If it's friends I need, you're enough," he muttered, replacing the carbine in its case. "I don't exactly need a lot."

"And if I'm too naïve for my own good, you do enough to remind me of how wretched the world can be, sometimes," she said, crossing her arms. "We do balance each other out in a weird way."

"We do," he agreed, grinning as he closed the last crate he was inspecting. They were on opposite ends of the scale between good and bad, but when they were together, she reminded him that there still exists compassion in the world even for the likes of him, and he liked the idea that he would protect her from all those who would think to take advantage of her good nature.

Their eyes met, and he wondered if she thought of him as fondly as he thought of her. It seemed like a long shot to him, but for all his ego saying that he didn't need anyone, his soul seemed to be saying something else. If he had no self-control whatsoever he would probably have gone to Kaoru and told about how he felt and how he wanted to be with her, but he was a man who lived by careful planning up to the point of overthinking, and he still had plans that have yet to unfold. He had no control over his feelings, but he could control his actions.

His thoughts were interrupted by a man coming into the warehouse. The newcomer appeared flustered to see Enishi there, and he mumbled a quick "Sir" before shuffling to one of the crates.

"When are these due for shipment?" Enishi asked, automatically switching to business mode. He glanced at the address on the crates. It was to go to an address near the city of Nanjing.

"Tomorrow, sir," the delivery man said.

He nodded thoughtfully. Tomorrow. Tomorrow was also the day Ming tasked them to take down the Ryukage. Already, his nerves were tingling with the anticipation of an impending fight.

"Fine. I was just taking a look around," he said, taking Kaoru's hand and leading her out of the warehouse.

As they walked back to the compound, he told her, "Tomorrow is the day we're going to hit the ninjas."

He caught the way she pressed her lips together in worry. "All of you are going?" she asked.

"Me, Lei and Soong An," he said. "With several members of the organization's assault team."

"It's going to be dangerous, isn't it?" she asked unnecessarily.

"Yes," he answered, selfishly enjoying her concern.

"Ninjas are scary," she fretted.

"But the assault team is armed with guns," Enishi said. "They will be going in first. I am there just as back up and just to make sure that no one escapes."

He spoke with confidence, but he did not mention to her that he had little faith in their firearms. Guns had a good range on them, but once fired, they needed to be reloaded, and the few seconds spent reloading the gun was an eternity when faced with opponents that had great speed.

They reached the compound, and as soon as they were in the house that they shared, Enishi got his watou. "I'm going to spend a few hours in practice," he said.

She nodded, changing from her shoes to her Chinese slippers. "I think I will go to the koi pond and feed the fish for a while. Will you be wanting a warm bath after your practice?"

"Yes," he said, feeling at ease as he left her to go to the training area. He found it peculiar, after carrying on the charade for two weeks with Kaoru that they were a couple, they had settled into a routine that felt almost natural. During their first days in Shanghai, he had to keep reminding himself to take her hand or to stay beside her when they were in the company of other people, but now these same gestures just came to them both effortlessly.

He pushed thoughts of Kaoru to the back of his mind as he reached the training area. He wasn't surprised to see Soong An and Lei there again. Soong An was sporting the twin daggers she favored at close combat, and she was doing her own exercises at the opposite edge of the field. Enishi watched her shift from one form to the next, her actions flowing like water.

 _She is really good when she puts her mind to it,_ he admitted to himself.

"The way Soong An is going, the two of us can just sit back," Lei said, walking up to him.

"How big is your assault team going to be?"

"Fifty," Lei answered. "Armed with the latest rifles we have just acquired. I was thinking about taking a couple of gatling guns but the cave's terrain wouldn't allow it."

"Single shot rifles?" Enishi asked.

"Double," Lei said.

"You can put a gatling gun at the perimeter outside, just tell them to be careful not to shoot at our backs," Enishi said, unsheathing his watou.

"Noted," Lei said, leaving him alone to practice on his own.

Enishi crouched on the ground, feeling the power in the coiled muscles of his legs. Without warning, he launched himself into a quick lunging attack, impaling a tree at the edge of the clearing with such force that it's trunk splintered. He looked at the remains of the tree, satisfied. Mei was probably going to be upset that he ruined yet another tree when she had been so diligent in having wooden targets set up around the training area. He did not care, though. His body was anticipating a fight, and he needed to feel the full power of his attack against a deep-rooted tree. It had been more than a month since his last real fight but his skills were, as he expected, still top-notch. _Shouldn't expect any problems tomorrow._

* * *

Note:

Here's the next installment. I've been distracted lately, devouring fanfiction of another old anime. But don't worry, this story will be done in time. It's already starting to wind down. ^^


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13

Kaoru sat on a bench by the koi pond, crushing some old bread in her hands before tossing it out onto the water. Seeing the fish scramble to get the nibbles made her feel light-hearted even though at the back of her mind she knew that she would be spending the following day worrying about Enishi again.

 _If this is what it feels like to be the wife of a mafia boss, I'm going to age prematurely,_ she thought ruefully. _Even if it means having nice dresses and having servants and getting to eat chocolates everyday._

She should have been used to it by now, living with Kenshin for a year and seeing him go off on numerous battles. Even having Sanosuke around, who always got into street brawls, should have numbed her somewhat.

She sighed, throwing another handful of breadcrumbs to the fish and smiling again when she saw them swim to the surface. The quiet afternoon was broken by quick footsteps behind her, and she glanced over her shoulder to see Mei walking her way, an irate expression on her face, followed by Yuan who seemed to be trying to keep himself from smiling.

"That Enishi," Mei hissed, sitting down beside Kaoru. "Tell me, what is the point of setting up practice dummies when he just goes and destroys the trees anyway?"

"Ah," Kaoru said, realizing that she had probably seen Enishi demolish a tree during practice. It was something he liked to do… he must have felled one tree a day while they were on the island. She bit back a smile. "He does like to do that."

"It takes years to grow trees as nice as the ones we have here," Mei said, gesturing around. Then she turned to Yuan. "Yuan, you were following me?"

"Yes," Yuan said, pulling something from under his arm. "I was at the silk farm earlier today, then I went to the weavers and I got this nice piece of silk. I thought you'd like it, the color is rare. If you don't want it I can add it to the next batch of exports."

Mei took the cloth from him, running her hands over it. She showed it to Kaoru, and though Kaoru knew little of the qualities of good silk, she knew just from touching the soft material that it was the good kind. The color was interesting.

"I can't decide if it's blue or green," Mei muttered.

Kaoru agreed. "It's like Enishi's eyes," she said.

"Exactly," Mei said, smiling. "I'll take it, Yuan. Will you be staying for dinner tonight?"

"No, the wife is home early from work today and demands that I eat dinner with her," Yuan said good-naturedly.

When Yuan left them, Mei turned to Kaoru. "Yuan is the only one who is married among us. His wife works as a teacher and has absolutely no idea that Yuan is in the underground business. That is why Yuan lives off-site."

"I see," Kaoru said, her ears now used to hearing the Chinese tongue. Since her first week there, Mei and Lei have insisted on carrying conversations with her in Chinese, and while she struggled at first, she now knew enough to follow most of the conversations around her although she always replied in Japanese. It must sound weird to other people, hearing Mei speak in Chinese and Kaoru answer in Japanese but still manage to carry on a decent conversation.

"You're not watching Enishi practice?" Mei asked.

"No. Seeing him practice just makes me more worried about him going off tomorrow," Kaoru said. "I don't like being the one left behind, waiting."

"I understand what you mean," Mei said. "My father doesn't send me out so much either."

"Do you fight?" Kaoru asked, wondering if all the seniors were adept at combat.

She nodded. "I use a crossbow for long range and I use pressure point fighting at close range. Not that I get to use it much. Like you, I am the one always left behind. Besides, I'm the doctor, so I'm the one always waiting to receive and treat the injured."

"Do they get injured a lot?"

Mei thought about it. "Nothing life threatening. The worst I had to work with was Lei getting impaled by a spear. Enishi just gets bruised a lot and he doesn't really want to be touched by anybody else, even for medical reasons. Soong An doesn't get injured much, either. It's the members of our infantry that I mostly see to."

Kaoru checked the sky, noting that the sun was starting to set. "I'd better get back to the house and heat some water for Enishi. He wants to bathe before dinner."

Mei nodded, hugging the silk to her chest. "See you at dinner, Kaoru."

Kaoru walked back to the house, heating water for Enishi. While waiting, she passed the time by folding up their dirty clothes and putting it in the laundry basket. The organization's servants picked up the laundry every morning, and she was not missing the chore of having to wash her own clothes.

Enishi walked in a few minutes later, his torso bathed in sweat. He looked over at her and looked pleased when he saw the water for his bath. She smiled back at him, admiring his physique. _I wouldn't mind being married to a man with a body like that._

Her eyes widened slightly at the surprisingly naughty thought, and she turned her head away. "Did you have a good session?" she asked, keeping her voice neutral. "Mei was upset about that tree you destroyed."

He was smug. "Sometimes it makes me feel better knowing I can destroy things like that. I haven't split a tree since we got here."

"Hm. A few more weeks on that island and you would have run out of trees," she said.

The kettle started to whistle, and she put out the fire. She was about to lift the kettle when he reached past her to take it. "Let me do that," he said.

"Oh." She stood back as he walked into the bathroom. "Well, I did say I was going to prepare your bath for you."

He reappeared at the bathroom door and handed her the kettle. "It's fine. There are some things I can do for myself," he said.

"So what are the things you can't do?" she asked, teasing him.

He put his fingers to his lips, pretending to think. "Let's see," he murmured, giving her a wicked look. "I can't scrub my back?"

She rolled her eyes, trying to ignore what he was suggesting. "You've been scrubbing it fine for years without me."

He shrugged. "I just thought about it, since we're playing as a couple already…"

"I'm not your wife yet, even by cover story standards," she pointed out, trying to look stern while keeping the smile from her face. She didn't know why he was being so playful tonight, but she liked it.

"This might be our last night together and I might die tomorrow," he told her.

Her face froze, and this time it was his turn to roll his eyes. "It was a joke, Kaoru."

"You said I shouldn't worry," she said

"I was joking," he insisted. He pretended to frown. "If I was serious, would you scrub my back?"

"Enishi!" She stepped forward and shoved him into the bathroom, closing the door in his face. Left alone in the room, she dropped onto the couch and let out a breathless laugh. She heard the water start running, and she shook her head. The more time she spent with him, the more revelations she discovered.

He had started out as her captor, and during that time she had been cautious in her dealings with him. When they traveled to Shanghai, he began to be her guardian, her protector, who tried his best to integrate her into the organization while keeping her safe. Forced to play a charade as a couple, they became allies with a common cause. Then, from allies, they became friends, sharing more and more of themselves with each other.

 _What comes next after friends?_ she wondered. _What happens next when we are already at ease with one another?_

She laid her head on the armrest of the couch, not denying that she enjoyed his company. He was different from other people that she knew, he was complicated, but he allowed her to understand him in simple ways. He treated her differently, and even though they had a cover story to maintain, she was almost sure that his actions towards her were genuine. She wanted them to be.

She was still lying down on the couch when Enishi finished his bath. He strode into the room, took one look at her, and must have mistaken her pensive look for worry. He immediately walked over to her and knelt down so he was face to face with her.

"Are you still thinking about what I said?" he asked. "Not the scrubbing the back part, but about me dying?" He looked amused.

"No… I knew you were joking," she said, sitting straight up. "I was just… just lost in thought."

"What thoughts?"

She decided to jest. "Well, I was thinking, if you were serious, then I would have agreed to the back scrubbing bit so you won't go to your grave all dirty and unfulfilled."

The corners of his mouth turned up as he looked at her intently. "You joke, but… don't tempt me," he warned her.

She looked at his face, so near hers, and she was half-serious when she said, "You're the one who started it."

He turned serious, looking at her, his eyes suddenly unreadable, before he looked away. He stood up, offering her a hand. "I didn't mean to," he said. "Shall we go to dinner?"

"Yes," she said, grateful to him for breaking the spell.

Dinner was no ordinary affair. Kaoru met Jiao for the first time, and she understood why Mei had said before that Jiao preferred not to show his face too much. The man, though he was probably just about the same age as Kenshin, had more than half of his face scarred by a chemical burn, with his left eye completely destroyed, that she could only muster a polite hello before she turned her gaze back to her food.

"My face seems to be putting off your woman," Jiao said to Enishi.

Kaoru's head shot up before Enishi could reply. "No," she said hastily. "I did not mean to cause offense, and I apologize if I did. As for appearances, I put more stock in a person's attitude more than how they look."

Enishi let out a short laugh. "In that case, Jiao, you wouldn't be doing very well by her standards, either. If you make her uncomfortable again, I'll make sure your face is not the only thing you will worry about."

Soong An snorted into her glass of wine. "He's not bluffing," she told Jiao.

Kaoru smiled uncomfortably as Jiao muttered under his breath. Mei rolled her eyes. "Jiao, if you keep acting like that, people are going to be put off by your attitude rather than your face," she said simply. "Kaoru's not so superficial as to judge you by how you look."

"Seems like you've finally found a friend other than Soong An," Jiao said, sneering. "Good for you, Mei."

Lei sighed as he helped himself to a second serving of dinner. "Another pleasant dinner," he said. "I do wonder why we insist on eating together sometimes."

"Because it is one of the rare times we all actually come face to face with each other to discuss business," Ming said.

"We already know what business needs to be done tomorrow, let us just enjoy dinner in peace," Lei said, reminding everyone that half of the seniors were going out in the morning.

Kaoru looked at Lei's tight expression, noting that it was one of the rare times she had seen the arms dealer serious. Even Soong An was quiet, sipping at her wine, having eaten little that night. Enishi was his usual self, sitting in his chair with his back ramrod straight, finishing the last of his meal.

 _Are they worried,_ she thought to herself, feeling that there was a certain tension over the table that night.

When she was alone with Enishi in his house that night, she voiced her concern. They were already in bed, lying side by side, both of them staring at the ceiling.

"Lei and Soong An are apprehensive because they have not faced ninjas before," he explained. "China has a lot of martial artists, but ninjas from Japan are different. You've met ninjas before, you've got ninja friends. You know what I mean."

"But you've faced them in combat before," she said.

"Yes, when I caught several of them last week," he said. "I had the element of surprise back then and it worked for me."

She considered this. She thought about the Oniwabanshu, whose name alone was enough to instill fear in those that would be considered their enemies. She did not know who the Ryukage were, but if they held the same standards as the Oniwabanshu, being ninjas, then they were not ordinary opponents.

She felt Enishi slip his arm around her and he pulled her to him. "I'm not as apprehensive, but I don't think it's going to be a simple walk on the beach either," he told her. "You asked me earlier if there was anything you could do to help me. There is. Just stop the damn worrying, and let me sleep like this tonight. You make me feel at ease, and it is when my mind is clear that I am able to fight at my best."

She turned to face him, her head nestled in the hollow of his shoulder as his left arm held her loosely by the waist. She placed her arm across his chest in a loose embrace, gingerly at first, before gradually relaxing as she let his even breathing soothe her own nerves. It was the most intimate they had been with each other so far, the previous nights he usually just held her with her back to him.

 _If I had known it would make both of us feel this good, I would have slept like this with him before,_ she thought as she drifted off to sleep. It was the one of the most soothing sleep she had ever had.

* * *

Note: Thanks for all those who put in their comments in the reviews. I'm writing the end part now in my draft and it's a bit hard to wrap up all the loose ends. It's easy starting a story, but it's the finishing of it that's hard. Lots of respect to those writers who actually finish their pieces. ^^


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Enishi picked up his watou, slinging it over his shoulder and feeling optimistic. He woke up that morning with Kaoru in his arms, returning his loose embrace. It was a restful sleep, and he must have spent five minutes upon waking up just feeling her proximity. Remembering his promise to wake her before he left, he coaxed her to wakefulness with a few murmured words.

Now Kaoru was fully awake, looking at him, trying her best not to look worried but he saw through it anyway. When he turned to go, she opened her mouth "Enishi, please be care-"

"Yes," he said, cutting her off.

Her hands flew to her hips as she reacted to his rudeness, and he merely turned his head to the side, tapping a finger to his cheek, asking her for his kiss. "Fine," she muttered, reaching up to plant a kiss on his cheek. "I'm still going to say it. Be careful."

He pretended to sigh, then gave her a wicked grin before leaving through the door. Meeting Lei and Soong An outside the brothel, they rode towards Tongli under the darkness of the early morning.

When they got to the cave entrance, the assault force Lei had put together were already making their move, filing into the cave. A team was waiting for them right outside the cave entrance, where they had a gatling gun set up as back up. Enishi walked past them, studying the men with a critical eye.

"Careful what you shoot at," he said disdainfully. "If you shoot at any of us, I'm going to make you eat each casing."

The men voiced their affirmation, and Enishi led the way into the cave, flanked by Lei and Soong An. From Mei's intelligence, he knew that the cave had one entrance, but once inside, it descended below the ground and broke off into a network of tunnels that led into different rooms. It was dark inside once they were a few paces from the entrance, and Enishi scowled. Their men would be at a disadvantage not knowing where they were shooting at. The last thing he wanted was to be mistaken for the enemy and have a bullet in his head.

As they went deeper into the cave system, he saw that there were oil lamps at regular intervals lining the walls. Instead of actually providing light, their dim hues only served to make the surroundings bleaker. Enishi ignored the dampness that he felt coming from the earth. He could hear sounds of fighting from further within, punctuated by sporadic gunfire. Already, they had passed corpses of at least ten people, both ninjas and mafia, lying down where they were either struck or shot dead.

Enishi came to a fork, and he pointed at Lei and Soong An to go left while he continued on to the right. He slipped through the darkness, stretching his senses, his nerves tingling just underneath his skin. His sharp ears heard sounds of fighting ahead, and he felt rather than heard someone step out of the shadows at his left, to try to cut the big artery on his neck.

He dropped down to the ground, pivoting on one heel as he swept the legs out from under his attacker. Without missing a beat, his hand shot out, delivering a sharp blow to the man's skull, breaking the thin bone at the temple. In the darkness, he caught a flash of steel glinting at the other end of the room and he brought up his watou just in time to deflect a dagger that had been thrown at him. From his crouching position, he lunged forward and impaled his second attacker with his sword.

 _That's two down,_ he thought, drawing his sword from the ninja he had just killed. He wiped his watou clean of blood while checking his surroundings with a steely eye. The dim light of the oil lamps and the shadows it cast on the walls were giving him a headache, and he much rather preferred to focus on his other senses than use his eyes.

He passed through another corridor that led him to a bigger space, which the ninjas obviously used as a kind of mess hall. There were wooden crates arranged together to create makeshift tables, and he could see that there were still some cups and plates left behind. Apparently their attack had come as a surprise for the ninjas who were in the middle of breakfast.

Enishi's sharp ears heard a footfall behind him, and he turned around and raised his watou to counter a downward slash from yet another ninja. Then, following through with his Kaishi Tosei, he made his turn and thrust his sword into his assailant. Before the man lost consciousness, Enishi grabbed him by his collar. "Where is your okashira?" he demanded, speaking in Japanese.

The ninja appeared to be surprised to hear his native tongue, but he only shook his head until he fell unconscious. Enishi swore under his breath and retrieved his watou. He needed to find the okashira to know who had hired them. Otherwise, they will not get to the bottom of the problem. _Damn ninjas and their code of honor,_ he thought.

He could still hear sounds of battle echoing through the walls of the cave, and he did a mental count. He had killed three of the ninjas. He had seen about five or six of them dead already when he was walking with Lei and Soong An. That meant there were still about thirty of them unaccounted for, provided that the other seniors did not encounter anyone.

Enishi wiped his sword clean again as he prepared to continue deeper into the cave system. He was about to walk off when he noticed a familiar label on one of the crates, peeking at him from underneath a plate. Lifting an eyebrow, he pushed the plate to the side with the tip of his sword, and saw the labels that his organization used to mark crates for delivery.

 _These are our crates,_ he realized, kneeling down to look at the label more read the address on the label. _It's the same one I saw at the warehouse. These ninjas are connected to those foreigners._ He smirked. He had another lead to follow. He didn't need to find the okashira now.

His discovery was interrupted by the sound of something slicing through the air, and he sank to the ground just as a throwing knife cut the air right where his head had just been. He adjusted the grip on his tachi, searching the dimly lit room for the source of the knife.

"I see you've found out our suppliers," a voice said. A tall man stepped forward, casually holding another throwing knife in his hand.

Enishi looked at the new arrival, noting the air of authority around him. "You must be the okashira," he said. "Just when I have no need of you anymore. I already know who hired you."

"It's those white-skinned men," the okashira said, smiling.

"Why did they hire your clan in particular?" Enishi asked.

"They couldn't hire anyone in China that would go against your organization."

Enishi smiled. "For a good reason," he said. "Which I'm sure you have already realized."

The ninja lost his smile. "You have killed a lot of my brothers."

"Well, you have killed a lot of my… employees," Enishi answered. "But more than that, your actions have cost me precious time as I have had to drag myself back to Shanghai all the way from Japan. This ends now."

Enishi attacked the ninja, once again sinking to the ground and unleashing his Senran Tosei. The ninja was quick to evade him by leaping into the air. Enishi followed him, leaping up as well and swinging his watou into an upward whip-like slash that would have gutted the okashira if the ninja wasn't quick enough to block the strike with his leg, sacrificing it to prevent himself from being cut open. The ninja fell to the ground, rolling before getting back up on his feet.

Enishi landed lightly on his feet, resting the watou on his shoulder and cocking his head at his opponent. "How much did they pay you to come after us?" The ninja looked at him, one hand pressing onto the open wound on his leg. Enishi smiled nastily, noting that the leg wound will reduce his opponent's speed. "Because I think you should have asked for more money," he added, slowly swinging his sword in a wide arc and adjusting his grip on it again. He charged forward with a thrusting attack, impaling his enemy in the chest. Using his strength, Enishi swung his sword around and slammed the ninja onto the ground. He balled his hand into a fist and punched the ninja in the face, breaking his nose.

"Where are our assets? Where did you hide the resources you stole from our drug dens?" he hissed, proceeding to choke the okashira. "Nobody steals from me."

The ninja wheezed as he tried to get some air into his lungs, but his breath was already making a gurgling sound as his lungs started to fill with blood from his chest stab wound.

Enishi loosed his choke-hold and demanded of the ninja again. "Where is our money!"

The okashira took in a deep breath, and managed a smile at Enishi. "You won't be needing it," he whispered.

Enishi's mind registered the sound of flint striking steel, and he looked down to see the ninja holding a bomb in his hand. "Fucking sore loser," he swore, severing the man's head from his body with his sword.

He then groped for the handheld explosive, but the small bomb had rolled off the ninja's now slack hand, rolling towards a box of crates. Enishi swore under his breath again, barely having time to look for cover when the fuse ran out and the bomb exploded.

* * *

Kaoru watched as Mei systematically packed her medicine box. The Chinese doctor was pouring a white powder into paper pouches, carefully measuring how much she put in each one. She then folded these pouches into small pieces before placing them in her box, which was separated inside by wooden partitions to make smaller compartments that separated the different compounds that she used.

"This is an analgesic," Mei explained, waving one pouch in front of Kaoru. "The ones that are darker in color are the antiseptics. The analgesics you need to dissolve in water before administering by mouth. The antiseptics are combined with just a few drops of water to make a paste, and the paste is applied to open wounds."

"So this is how you prepare when they go out on an assignment," Kaoru said.

Mei nodded. "Besides the medicine, I also have a surgeon's kit, for when I might need to do some stitching."

Kaoru cringed as she thought about sewing up open wounds. She had seen her share of injuries, and was not bothered by the sight of blood, but she didn't think she could bear to feel the thought of pushing a needle through skin.

Mei saw her face, and she smiled. "Oh, I felt the same way at first, but I got used to it," she told her. "My mother was a doctor as well. She died when I was twelve, but she has started me on the path long before that so the rest of it came naturally to me. Can you hand me those bandages?"

Kaoru picked up several rolls of bandages from the cabinet next to her and handed them to Mei, who was perched on her bed. "Well, if you will be needing any help later, just tell me. As long as it doesn't involve any stitching," she said.

Mei looked out the window at the sun. "They should be back in an hour or so, if things went smoothly."

There was a smart knock on her door and Jiao came in with an armful of bandages. "Here you go Mei," he said, dropping them on the bed. "I expect you'll be needing them."

"Thank you for your optimism," Mei said, rolling her eyes. "Are you staying until they get back?"

"Will you be needing help?"

"Kaoru will be here," Mei said.

"Then you won't be needing me," Jiao said. "Anyway, wrapping bandages and patching up people are more of a woman's job."

Jiao left, and Mei took a final stock of her inventory. "I think we're all set," she said. "Let's go to the koi pond for some quiet time before they get back, as I'm sure we will be quite busy then."

The two of them went for a walk and sat down by the bench at the side of the pond. They had a good view of the entrance to the compound, and in between watching the fish, they took turns watching the gate.

Kaoru was the one who had her eyes on the gate when it opened and two men came rushing in, carrying a stretcher in between them. Her hand shot out to grab Mei's arm. "They're back," she said.

Mei quickly rose to her feet, walking towards the new arrivals. Kaoru followed, and saw that the one they were carrying on the stretcher was Soong An. The woman was conscious, but had her eyes closed in a painful grimace. Kaoru saw that her right leg was at an odd angle, probably broken, and there was a long gash running down her right thigh.

Mei gave quick instructions for Soong An to be brought to the clinic, and as the rest of the party filed past them, Kaoru looked around for any sign of Enishi. About twenty people went past and she did not see any sign of his white hair. When the last of the men trickled in and the gate was closed after them, Kaoru realized that Enishi and Lei were not among them.

"Where is Enishi?" she asked one of the men in Chinese.

The man, carrying a rifle slung over his shoulder, turned to her. "Lei is still looking for him, ma'am."

She ignored the fist that closed around her heart and proceeded to question the man, not aware that her voice had taken a similar tone to Enishi's when he was cross. "What do you mean, Lei is still looking for him?"

The man looked uncomfortable. "There was a cave-in at the part of the system where the boss was. The way in was blocked. Lei is still trying to find a way through."

Kaoru bit her lip, thinking things through. _Relax,_ she told herself. _It doesn't mean Enishi is hurt._ She considered asking the man to take her to where Lei and Enishi were, but when she took in his weary state, and the blood seeping through his left sleeve, she decided against it. She didn't want them to think that she was a weak woman who could no nothing else but worry.

"Fine, go to the clinic to have your injuries looked at," she murmured, waving him off.

The man started to walk away, but he turned back to Kaoru. "Don't worry, ma'am, Lei will keep looking no matter how long it takes him."

Kaoru nodded, appreciating the lame effort to make her feel better. She stood by herself for a while, collecting herself and willing down the uneasiness in her heart, before making her way to the building that Mei used as her clinic.

The clinic was larger than the usual bungalows that the members of the syndicate used as their houses. It was one large room with an adjoining room towards the back that served as a wash area. There were cots lined up against one wall, and it was on one of these small beds that Soong An was lying down on.

Mei was sitting beside the bed, her face a mask of concentration as she cleaned Soong An's wound. Kaoru stood beside her, and without looking up, Mei asked for another basin of clean water. Kaoru went to the wash area and returned with a fresh basin just as Mei got out her surgeon's kit.

"Your leg is broken so I'll have to splint it, but before I can do that I have to close this wound, it's too wide to heal without stitches," Mei told Soong An.

Kaoru was surprised to see Soong An was still awake. "Just do whatever," the woman muttered.

"There were no major blood vessels cut but you still lost a good amount of blood. I'm afraid I'm going to have you eat a lot of liver the next few days," Mei murmured, sprinkling some anesthetic over the wound before tackling the muscle and skin with her needle.

"Wonderful," Soong An said sarcastically. She looked up and seemed to notice Kaoru for the first time. "Enishi's still out there but Lei is looking for him. There was a cave-in where he was at."

Kaoru nodded, wiping at the sweat on Soong An's brow as Mei continued to piece together the skin on her leg. "One of the men told me," she said.

Soong An gritted her teeth. "I wouldn't worry. Enishi's like a bad weed… really hard to kill."

"Just rest," Kaoru said, feeling odd at Soong An's attempt to console her. It made her feel that the situation was far worse than she had originally thought. To keep herself busy, she grabbed the oil lamp by the table and held it closer to Mei so she can see better.

"Thank you," Mei said. It took her only five minutes to finish closing the wound, after which she put the antiseptic paste over it. Then, she wrapped it with clean bandages, smiling as she secured the bandage in place. "All done," she said. "Now I have to splint your leg. I'll have to position it correctly so it's going to hurt for a bit."

Kaoru looked away as Mei manipulated Soong An's leg, rotating it the right way before securing it with a splint.

Soong An sighed when Mei finally stood up. "You are merciless," she told the doctor.

Mei paused. "Do you want a sleeping draught for tonight?"

The injured girl nodded. Mei called to one of the servants and gave her instructions before moving on to her next patient. The rest of the injuries were minor cuts and bruises, and Mei quickly made her rounds of eight more patients before she considered her work done.

Kaoru stood with her by the clinic door as Mei looked over at Soong An. "Soong An will be sleeping until tomorrow morning," Mei said. "We don't have anything left to do here, Kaoru. Are you all right?" she asked concernedly.

"Yes, but I'm worried about Enishi," Kaoru admitted.

"Well, all we can do at this point is wait," Mei said. "And let us not forget to take care of ourselves as well. Let's go to the mansion and have something to eat, it's almost dinner time."

They met Ming at the dining hall, where he was sitting with Cheng. Ming asked Mei for a progress report on the day's events, but Mei said that they were still waiting for Lei and Enishi to come back.

"Soong An was severely injured. She will be out of commission for at least six weeks until her leg heals," Mei said. "She had a complete fracture, I had to set it and splint it."

Ming frowned, displeased at the news. Kaoru realized that Soong An was the other enforcer of the organization. With Enishi leaving in the near future, they would have no enforcer left. "Will she recover completely?" Ming asked.

"Yes," Mei said. "But it will take time and she might have to do some therapy to regain the full function of her leg."

"And Enishi?"

"He was trapped when part of the cave came down. Lei is still working on getting him out."

"How many men does Lei have working with him?"

"About seven," Mei said. "Of the assault team, eight were dead, ten were injured, fifteen are well and the rest are still unaccounted for."

"Do you want me to go and help Lei?" Cheng asked Ming.

Kaoru looked up hopefully. If Cheng was going to Lei to help search for Enishi, then she wanted to go as well. However, Ming shook his head. "No, Lei can handle that on his own."

Kaoru forced her dinner down while Ming continued to talk with Cheng about their tea business. As soon as she was done, she excused herself politely and made her way to the koi pond. The spot had an excellent view of the gate, and feeding the fish gave her an excuse to wait for Enishi without appearing to do so.

Mei joined her after a while, and they silently watched the fish as Kaoru absent-mindedly threw breadcrumbs every few minutes. "They'd better arrive soon or your fish are all going to end up fat," Kaoru muttered, drawing a light laugh from Mei.

Her attempt to joke was rewarded by the sound of the gate swinging open, and both girls looked up to see Enishi and Lei walking in followed by the rest of their men. Kaoru let out the breath she was holding. _He's alive,_ her mind screamed at her.

"You're back," she said as she got within earshot of them. She immediately went to Enishi's side and reached up to give him a quick embrace.

The annoyed expression on his face disappeared as her hand came around his neck, then he took a step backwards, out of her reach, gesturing to the state of his clothes. "I'm dirty, Kaoru," he said.

"I don't care," she said, closing the distance between them to finish giving him her hug. "I'm glad you're safe."

"Thanks, I'm all right, too," Lei said off to her side.

Kaoru stepped back from Enishi. "That goes for you too, Lei," she said, gratitude in her voice.

Lei grinned at her. "Enishi got trapped when the cave collapsed on top of him. Took me a while to dig through all the rubble. Mei, I'm unhurt, but Enishi's got some nasty stuff on his back."

Mei stepped forward to look at Enishi's back, but he waved her off. "Just abrasions," he said. "I'll rest at my house. Just send over some bandages and antiseptics and I'll do it myself."

Mei dropped her hands to her side. "Okay."

The four of them walked together, reaching Lei's house first. Lei said his goodnight, and before he entered his house, Enishi reminded him that they were to give Ming their report in the morning. When the three of them reached the fork that led to their respective bungalows, Kaoru handed the house key to Enishi.

"I'll pick up the bandages from Mei's house so she won't have to walk over," she said.

Enishi nodded, and Kaoru followed Mei. The doctor handed her the medicine and the bandages, giving her some more instructions on making the antiseptic paste.

When Kaoru arrived at Enishi's house, she found him standing in the middle, gingerly peeling off his bloodied shirt. "The blood's not mine," he told her, weariness now evident in his voice.

Kaoru finally got a good look at his back, and winced. There were multiple abrasions and some cuts, although the wounds appeared surface deep only and did not need stitching. "How did you get these abrasions?" she said, stepping closer and gently touching the skin near one of the cuts.

"I was fighting the okashira and he ignited a bomb," he said, annoyed. "The pig couldn't live with his own defeat and had to take the entire cave down. The blood on my clothes is his. When he lit the bomb I threw his body over it to absorb some of the blast before I looked for cover. Of course the bomb caused his body to explode into thousands of gory paste. The cuts and abrasions I got from falling debris."

She sighed. "You _are_ dirty. I'll heat some water, there is no way you're not going to wash tonight. Even your hair has got some blood and…"

"Yes, human tissue," he finished for her, scowling.

Kaoru heated some water, feeling better now that Enishi was in the same room with her and was not seriously injured. She looked down at her clothes, wiping at a blood stain that she had gotten when she held him earlier. "I was really worried about you," she said quietly.

"I thought you would be," he said, standing beside her and leaning against the kitchen counter. "I tried to get out as fast as I could, but I had to be careful not to cause a different part of the cave to collapse."

"Do you want something to eat? I can ring one of the servants to bring a late dinner for you."

He shook his head. "I just want to wash all of this filth off."

Once the water was heated, he took it and poured it into his bath. He stood in front of the tub, one hand on the waistband of his pants, when he realized that Kaoru was still standing by the bathroom door. He looked at her. "Are you going to watch me bathe?" he asked, interested.

Kaoru felt her cheeks burning as she realized she was still looking at him. "No, I was just thinking if you needed help-"

"Scrubbing my back?" he finished for her. "Didn't you just refuse me last night?"

She frowned at the merriment in his eyes. "I was just concerned about you getting dirty water in those wounds when you wash."

"I will keep my back dry and wash off the rest of the stuff first," he said. "Then you can help me later with a clean washcloth. I need you to help apply the paste and the bandages too."

"Sounds good," she said, nodding as she closed the bathroom door. She sorted out the medicine Mei had given her, mixing water into the antiseptic to make a paste. By the time she was done mixing it in a small bowl, Enishi opened the bathroom door, dressed in a clean pair of pants, toweling his hair dry.

She looked at him, again feeling that rush of relief seeing him in the room with her. "Let's do this in the bathroom," she said, gathering the paste and the bandages in her arm.

She made him sit at the edge of the tub with his back towards the inside so she could clean his back. As she stepped into the tub to sit behind him, he held up his hand to help her in. "Careful," he said, for the tub was still wet from his bath.

Kaoru settled herself, perched on the other side of the tub, facing his back. She wet the washcloth and began to scrub gently at his back, removing the dirt and blood in and around his wounds. When the cloth grazed his abrasions, he gave a hiss.

"Sorry," she muttered.

"Is this payback time for you?" he asked.

"If it makes you feel any better, this actually hurts me as much as it hurts you," she said half-mockingly.

"No, that doesn't make me feel any better," he said, his hands gripping the sides of the tub as she continued her way down his back.

"It's really dirty," she said, discarding the soiled washcloth and reaching for a new one.

"What do you expect, I practically got buried alive." He winced as she cleaned out another wound. "Kaoru, that really hurts."

"Sorry," she said again, exasperated. _Geez, he can be such a kid sometimes. Soong An did a better job dealing with her pain._ "But I really need to clean it otherwise you will get an infection."

He sighed, dropping his head and enduring the rest of her ministrations. After a few minutes, and a few more protests from him, Kaoru was done. She picked up the bowl of antiseptic paste.

"That shit smells like rotten eggs," he muttered.

Kaoru raised her eyebrows and held the bowl to her nose cautiously until the scent of the paste wafted up her nose. _He's got an excellent sense of smell. I hardly noticed that smell before._ "I'll have to put it on your back before I do the bandages."

She applied the paste on his cuts, spreading it evenly until she was sure she had covered everything. She set the bowl down, wiping her fingers on the washcloth, before picking up the roll of bandages. She started to wrap the bandages around his torso, struggling to reach around him, until he took the roll from her left hand and passed it to her right. They repeated the process several times until Enishi's injuries were adequately covered.

"There," Kaoru said, tying the bandages firmly. "You're starting to look like Shishio now."

"I believe I have a better complexion," he said, standing up. "And I also believe that you do take pleasure in my injuries."

She stood up as well, lifting her skirt a little to step over the wall of the tub. He stepped closer to her, wrapping an arm around both of her legs to lift her bodily out of the tub and put her onto the bathroom floor next to him. "Oh. Thank you," she said, her hands automatically coming to rest at his waist. She looked up at him. "I was just teasing earlier. I'm honestly glad you're all right. I was very worried."

"I'm really glad I'm all right, too," he said, his arm still around her waist.

"I didn't want to make a big deal out of it in front of the others," she mumbled, looking at his chest before raising her head to meet his eyes. "But now that it's just the two of us here, I can finally…" Not finishing her sentence, she reached up to wrap her arms around his neck, giving him a firm hug. She breathed in his scent, now very familiar and comforting to her, as she raised herself on tiptoes to bury her face in his neck.

"When they said you were lost in the cave, and they were still looking for you, I tried not to think of the worst," she continued. "But the thought of not seeing you again…"

He held her to him by the waist while his other hand came up to the back of her head. He lowered his head to hers, and Kaoru's eyes widened at the thought that he was going to kiss her, forgetting that she had explicitly told him no kissing and that he was a man determined to keep his promises to her.

Enishi merely rested his forehead against hers. "You give me enough reason to keep coming home," he said. "It seems that you will always worry, regardless of how much I reassure you. I appreciate it, but I wish you wouldn't vex yourself so. Don't worry, Kaoru. I am not an easy person to get rid of."

"I can't help it, you're my friend," she said, pulling back to watch his face.

"Friend?" he asked her, meeting her eyes.

She didn't answer him, at least not in words. The way he always reached for her at night, and the way she let him hold her so intimately said it was obviously more than that. Their eyes mirrored each other, both showing regret and understanding. They were more than friends now, but the uncertainty of the future kept them at a midpoint. He was afraid of betraying his sister, and she was afraid of betraying her friends.

But even as she felt she was in limbo, Kaoru knew that she was not in it alone. He was there with her, also unsure. She opened her mouth to speak, but he held a finger to her lips, gently caressing it. "No, Kaoru, it was unfair of me to ask you that. Sorry." He paused, looking out the bathroom door. "Let's just get some sleep."

Minutes later, in bed, she curled into his chest, carefully putting an arm around him as she avoided his injuries. He gave a quiet grunt as he accommodated her. "Good night, Enishi," she said.

"Good night."

End of chapter.

* * *

Note: So… I posted two scenes in this update, since I really hate cliffhangers so I won't end any chapter on cliffhangers. Sorry it took more than a week to update, but thanks for keeping up with the story. Next update in another week or so.

I admit, I've been distracted lately, reading some harry potter fanfics. But don't worry, Enishi and Kaoru still have lots to do and we'll see them through. ^^


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15

The early morning sunlight filtered through the windows, and Enishi squinted his eyes at the glare. He looked down at Kaoru sleeping in his arms, and he pressed his lips together in a tight line. Words were not spoken last night, but they were unnecessary. He knew now that she cared for him just as he cared for her, but there was a line that kept them from crossing over to meet each other. A line that he himself had created.

He hadn't thought about it for a while, and it was the first time in years that the thoughts of revenge hadn't visited him at night. _Jinchuu_ , he thought, rolling the word over and over in his mind. _Nee-san, help me. The key to my own peace is right here with me, but how can I take it when you are still not smiling?_

He closed his eyes, trying to picture his sister, but the image was weak and close to fading. It was just as he had feared: the longer it took for him to finish jinchuu, the more he was losing his sister. And yet, if he killed Battousai… His arm tightened around Kaoru. It seemed that, whatever the outcome of jinchuu, he was set to lose something.

He extricated himself carefully from Kaoru's sleeping form, but just as he started to roll away, she woke up. "Is it time to get up?" she asked sleepily.

"For me," he said, sitting up at the edge of the bed. "You sleep in. I need to meet with Ming anyway. I'll have breakfast sent to you here." He reached out and tucked the blanket around her.

"How's your back," she said, closing her eyes again.

"Stiff, but I'll manage," he answered, rolling his shoulders back to wake up his muscles. He stood up, shrugging into a shirt while running a hand through his hair to get the tangles out.

"Do you need to go out again soon?"

"Not today."

She murmured something unintelligible as she drifted back to sleep. He left her, closing the door quietly after him, and walked to Ming's mansion. He found Lei just a few paces behind him, and he stopped so that the other man could catch up.

"Morning," Lei said as they fell into step beside each other. "Where's Kaoru?"

"I let her sleep in," Enishi answered.

"Your back bothering you?"

"No," he said. "Did you get the information I asked you to last night?"

Lei held up a sheaf of papers in his hand. "Right here, boss. Do you think Ming will take action?"

"He has to," Enishi spat out. "It's one of his clients that caused the drugs division to go to hell."

"Are you still in a foul mood because of being trapped in that cave-in yesterday?" Lei complained.

"No, I'm just eager to put a closure to all of this."

They reached the mansion and went straight into the dining room. As they took their seats, Enishi called over one of the servants and gave instructions to bring some breakfast for Kaoru in his house.

"She is not joining us this morning?" Mei asked curiously.

He shook his head, not bothering to explain. He mainly left Kaoru in the house because he knew that she was tired. She was not the one who was out the entire day yesterday, but she spent the whole day waiting and worrying and when he had gotten home he had to put her on the spot the way he prodded her about their relationship. Sleep would provide her a respite from her troubles. He himself could do with more sleep, but he had work to do.

Jiao was there, as were Cheng and Yuan. Enishi gestured for one of the servants to make him a cup of coffee as he leaned forward on the table. The others were still eating, but he began to talk, anyway.

"Yesterday, Lei, Soong An and I attacked the Ryukage clan in Tongli."

"How was Soong An injured?" Yuan asked curiously.

"From a kick," Lei said. "She was fighting two ninjas at the same time. I was at the other end of the room and couldn't really do anything."

"What are the numbers?" Ming asked.

"We sent in fifty people," Lei said. "Fifteen dead, ten injured, three unaccounted for. The rest are fine. We killed about forty ninjas. I had the landscape swept throughout the night to find some stragglers but turned up nothing. Might be the end of the ninjas."

Enishi sipped at his coffee, appreciating the warmth seeping into his bones. "That's not the end of it, though," he butt in. "I saw old crates in the cave, our crates, and they bore an address that is linked to one of our current clients." He nodded at Lei, who handed Ming the papers he was holding.

Ming read the files Lei had given him. "Did the ninjas have any of our weapons with them?"

"No," Lei said.

"Then all you saw are crates," Ming said to Enishi.

Enishi slammed his coffee cup onto the table. "Tell me how those boxes got from Nanjing to Tongli?" he asked.

"I cannot just accuse one of my clients just because of some boxes," Ming said. "If you hadn't killed the okashira…"

"I didn't. He killed himself," Enishi said, scowling. It was a typical Ming response. Always afraid to offend his big clients, especially these foreigners that were taking up a lot of their orders. The organization had changed. Years ago, Ming would have ordered an immediate assault, but the man had gone soft in his old age and most of his words were just empty threats. It was left to Enishi to carry out the threats to make them real.

"In any case, I can't order an attack on a client without hard evidence."

"Then don't," Enishi said. "Do it covertly. I will go."

Lei laughed at this. "Somehow Enishi and the word covert do not exactly fit in the same sentence. I will go."

"The two of you had just been out yesterday," Mei said. "If it is just to gather evidence, I can go. Jiao can come with me."

"No, Lei and Enishi can go," Ming said. "But go by yourselves, do not bring a team with you. Do it covertly."

"Wonderful," Enishi said, throwing Lei a scathing look. "We're going into the stronghold of someone you just delivered loads of arms to yesterday."

Lei chuckled, retrieving a piece of paper from Ming. "Those were mostly rifles and pistols. At least there were no cannons or gatling guns."

"Will you be ready to move by tomorrow?" Enishi asked.

"You're the one with the bad back."

"Tomorrow night," Enishi said with finality.

"Just the two of you?" Jiao asked.

"You can join the party," Enishi said. "I will meet you both tomorrow afternoon before we go. Ming, if you want to avoid any suspicion, it might be good for you to be seen in public."

"I thought you were just going to gather evidence," Ming said.

"Yes, but when I see the evidence I need, I'll finish it right there."

Enishi finished his coffee and stood up, not bothering to eat. He made his way back to his house, where he found Kaoru in the bath, and the kitchen table already set for breakfast.

"I'm back," he said through the bathroom door lest Kaoru think she was still alone and come out unclothed.

Kaoru came out, drying her hair with a towel. "That was a quick meeting," she said.

"I've said what needed to be said," he replied. "I'm going out again tomorrow."

She sat down on the table across from him, her brow furrowed. "So soon?"

"The sooner this gets resolved, the better," he said. "We will be returning to Tokyo after. Perhaps in about a week. Not much longer, Kaoru."

"Oh," she said, her cup of tea stopping halfway to her lips.

"We've been here almost three weeks. I thought you'd be sick of it by now," he said, smiling slightly. "The syndicate business doesn't really become you."

"It doesn't, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be," she admitted.

He reached for a dumpling and popped it into his mouth. "How did you imagine it would be?" he asked.

"Well, I thought it would be all men, no women," Kaoru said. "I imagined you'd be in meetings with them in closed rooms, smoking cigars and all that. Then again, I don't know much about organized crime. What little I know, I only saw from Kanryu Takeda and I wasn't impressed."

"Really now," he murmured, pouring himself a cup of tea as well. "Did I manage to impress you?"

She smiled into her cup. "Are you fishing for a compliment?"

"Yes."

She laughed. "Yes, Enishi, I was impressed."

"So was I," he said seriously. He gazed at her, remembering his first meeting with her. She had been such a little girl then, crying after being abducted. Now it was as if she had grown into a different person, able to deal with him and his moods and to engage in verbal volleys with him. Or perhaps that was the real Kaoru, and the crying girl was only a momentary slip caused by the shock of being taken away from her comforts the same way that fighting Battousai caused him to forget his own self and slip into a terrible insanity. Whatever it was, Enishi was sure of one thing. He didn't want to see Kaoru cry again. If it meant he had to abandon jinchuu…

 _Nee-san, please help me,_ he implored again, wishing that his sister would give him a sign. He knew it would break him if he were to cause Kaoru despair. His sister didn't come to him, and he curled his hand into a fist, forgetting that he was holding a teacup and breaking the china in his hand.

"Enishi!" Kaoru cried, coming to his side promptly, a towel in hand. She gently removed the china from his grip, wiping at his hand. "You weren't happy enough with the cuts on your back, you had to injure your hand as well?"

"Perhaps I wanted another demonstration of your tender loving care," he said disparagingly, attempting to disguise his brief loss of control.

"If you wanted to, Enishi, all you had to do was ask," she said, pressing the washcloth to his palm. She kept her eyes cast downwards, refusing to look at him.

He curled his fingers, trapping her hand with his and forcing her to look at him. "I can't," he said forcefully. He looked at her, the girl who had started to upset his plans for jinchuu, trying to find even a sliver of annoyance with her to negate the desire he had for her, but he only found anger at himself for putting both of them in their current situation.

He let out his breath slowly, trying to regain control of his temper fueled by his frustration. Then he felt her clasp his wounded hand in both of hers, her fingers grazing his knuckles lightly.

"Enishi," she said gently. "You told me before, that you work at your best when your mind is at ease. I don't want to be the reason for your mind's unease, and you promised me before that you wouldn't let me be your weakness."

"You do not cause my unease, it is my own doing," he said, looking at his hand in hers, not knowing if he should continue to hold it or push it away and hating himself for not knowing what to do.

"Then tell me what I can do to help," she said, beginning to sound exasperated.

He shook his head. "It's not as simple as that," he said, finally releasing her hand and standing up, turning his back to her.

She walked after him, putting a hand on his arm. "You can still give it a try," she said.

He turned around, grabbing her arm. "I am angry, Kaoru, because I am at an impasse," he said fiercely. "You just had to be kind to me, be my friend…" He spat out the last word as if it was acid in his mouth.

He let her go and tried to walk away, but she chased after him again, this time throwing her arms around his waist and holding on, her forehead pressed against his back. Enishi grit his teeth together. She was actually pressing on one of the cuts on his back, but he welcomed the pain this time, since it was certainly better than the headache he was starting to get.

"Yes, I am your friend," she said firmly. "So talk to me, instead of just getting mad."

He was angry, because he wanted her, but he couldn't do anything about it because of jinchuu. Yes, it would have been easy for him to take her now, but he didn't want her for just now. He wanted to have her until far into the future, but what kind of future could he hope to have with her when he completed jinchuu and killed Battousai? He felt like he was sentencing his own self to death.

"You know what happens when we get back to Tokyo," he said, keeping his back turned to her.

"Jinchuu will continue," she answered in a low voice.

"Will you still be my friend, after I kill Battousai?"

She didn't answer right away, but she loosened her hold on him and he felt her walk back to the kitchen table to sit down with a weary sigh. "Probably not," she said, and he at least appreciated her honesty. "Like you, Enishi, there are some things I need to think about."

End of chapter.

* * *

Note: Once again, thanks to those who check back and read this story and leave reviews. I don't really thank you individually, but each review is appreciated, and any comments will be taken into consideration in my future writings. Wishing you all a lovely day. ^^


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Kaoru carefully unwrapped the bandages from Enishi's torso. After his brief outburst earlier, Enishi had muttered an intelligible apology and dropped into bed, taking a much needed nap. When he woke up, he was back in business mode. Now he was sitting at the edge of their bed, his feet planted firmly on the floor as he hunched over, elbows propped on his thighs, studying Lei's weapons ledger, which was open on the floor in between his feet. Kaoru was on the bed, kneeling, her antiseptic paste and a fresh roll of bandages perched on a tray next to her.

"It looks better, drier," she said optimistically, wrinkling her nose. "But it doesn't smell so good."

"It's the sulfur in the paste," he said somewhat defensively, as if trying to tell her it was not him that was foul-smelling.

"I know," she said, reapplying the paste. She fell into silence as she saw him turn a page of the ledger with his foot, glad that he was, for the moment, back in his business manner. She felt unnerved when she deduced, while he was sleeping, that his earlier flare-up was due to the fact that he was considering the effects jinchuu would have on her and her relationship with him. Whereas before, his jinchuu was all about Tomoe, now she was suddenly included in the picture, and she didn't need him to directly say it because he probably never would, but somehow he cared about her as well.

 _And I care about him,_ she thought, recalling the way his arms felt around when they slept and how he tried to control his temper in front of her. She had started to wonder how it would feel to have him kiss her, and more than that, she _wanted_ him to kiss her, but her memory of Kenshin and the rest of her friends held her back from completely throwing herself at him. It felt like it was forbidden for her to love him, because of who he was.

She reached for the bandage, again starting to roll it around his torso, and he helped her again, taking the roll from her left hand to pass it to her right whenever she reached out to pass it in his front section.

 _It feels forbidden, but we actually work well together,_ she thought as, between the two of them, they finished covering Enishi's torso. She liked it when he discussed his work with her, when he told her about his excursions. She liked it that she was able welcome him home after his work, that she was able to ease his mind. Similar to their time on the island, they had found a comfortable routine in Shanghai. It made her somewhat believe that the two of them would always find a way to work through things, but that optimism wasn't enough to allow her to follow her heart completely. Not yet.

She secured the bandage in place. "All done," she said, patting his left shoulder.

"I was looking at orders made by that foreigner in Nanjing for the past six months. They only started buying heavily the past two months, before that it was just a few purchases here and there."

She put on her shoes and followed him out of the house. "Let's drop this off at Lei's house first before we head on to dinner," he said, holding up the book.

They stopped by Lei's house, and Enishi knocked on the door loudly. The two of them exchanged looks when they heard Lei cursing loudly on the other side of the door. A few seconds later, the door opened to reveal the owner of the house wrapped in a towel, which he was holding by his waist.

Enishi raised an eyebrow as he handed over the ledger. Lei grabbed the book, scowling. "You always have bad timing," he complained to his senior.

"How many times has Mei told you to hang something by the door if you didn't want to be disturbed?"

Lei flashed them both a grin as a woman's voice starting calling out coyly from inside the house. Kaoru bit her lip to smother a laugh as Enishi shook his head in disgust.

"Hang something, so all of you will know just how often I have a guest over?" Lei asked. "No way."

Enishi had already turned his back, dragging Kaoru with him. "See you tomorrow," he called over his shoulder.

Once they were out of earshot, Kaoru let out her laugh. "That happens often?" she asked.

"Yes, Lei likes women too much," Enishi said.

"Actually, I was expecting underground crime lords to be sort of like that," she admitted.

"Lei is. Jiao is, if he can pay someone enough to take him to bed. Cheng is as well. Yuan is a straight man, he's married. Soong An beds other men. Mei doesn't. As for me, it's not something I regularly engage in."

She considered this. "How irregularly do you engage in it?" she asked.

"Twice," he said, his answer coming almost immediately that she knew it was the truth. "Both times were gifts from business associates and to refuse would be offensive so I took them to bed then sent them off when I was done."

"Did you not find it pleasurable?" she ventured, thinking that any girl would be happy with Enishi's physique.

"In the physical sense, yes," he said matter-of-factly. "But the entire time I was in bed with either of them I was always thinking at the back of my mind that they were hired assassins or something of the sort. I had my watou within reach at all times. So, no, I did not really enjoy it," he finished with a wry smile. "I find more pleasure sleeping in bed with you even if you're as stimulating as a sack of potatoes."

His jab was rewarded with an automatic punch to his arm, pretending to turn her head away in anger while hoping that he would miss the blush that had come to stain her cheeks. She didn't know if Enishi was plainly making fun of her, or if he was flirting with her in his own sardonic way. It didn't matter to her, anyway. She liked it.

* * *

Enishi swirled the wine glass in his hand, stirring the spirit as he looked across the room at Kaoru who was playing chess with Yuan. Or at least, trying to play chess. It was her first time to see the game, and Yuan, out of boredom, had started to teach her the pieces. It was after dinner, and Ming had them all go into the sitting room as he and Mei planned an evening out for the organization tomorrow night while he and Lei would be on their excursion in Nanjing.

"We will be having dinner at the Shang Palace," Mei announced to them all after having conferred with her father. "The reason for the dinner is that we are celebrating father's birth anniversary, which is around a week from today."

"Who are coming to dinner?" Cheng asked.

"Well, everyone except Lei and Enishi," Mei said.

"Even Soong An?" Yuan asked, looking up from his game.

"Yes." Mei hesitated. "I know she is still recovering from her injury, but she is stable enough to be moved. Her leg is in a splint but we will take her there by carriage and she will be sitting the whole time during dinner. The Shang Palace is a popular restaurant, so a lot of people will see us there."

"I thought I was going with them," Jiao complained, jerking his thumb towards Enishi.

"No, it would be suspicious if too many of my seniors are gone from the table," Ming said. "That is why I'm only sparing the two of them." Jiao scowled at this but didn't argue further.

Enishi considered Ming's idea, knowing that Kaoru was going to be with them. He knew the restaurant, it was located in the center of town. If there were any threats, Soong An would be completely useless but Jiao, Cheng, Yuan and Mei were going to be there. He also knew that Ming always went around with a couple of armed bodyguards. He was tempted to tell Lei to stay behind as well, but it would be stupid for him to charge into enemy area by himself.

"You will need an enforcer with you in case something happens," he said. "Have Jiao accompany me instead of Lei." He would have preferred Lei's bad humor over Jiao's complaining but Lei was more capable of responding to emergencies than Jiao.

"Lei is not an enforcer," Mei pointed out.

"By temperament, but not by lack of skill," Enishi said, looking at her forcefully over the rim of his glasses.

"But your back, has it healed enough or are you still bothered by it?" Mei persisted.

Enishi smiled arrogantly. "I have no limitations whatsoever," he said, and his grin widened when, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Kaoru hide a smile behind her hand.

Mei finally relented. "All right, Lei will come with us and Jiao will go with you to Nanjing."

"You're going to have your usual escort, Ming?" Enishi asked.

"Yes," the syndicate head answered. "But I expect it to be a quiet evening. I always celebrate my birth anniversary by dining out."

Enishi nodded. It was that predictability that made him wary, though perhaps it would be fine this year since Ming was going out a week before his actual birthdate. He finished his glass of wine and stood up, catching Jiao's eye and indicating to the other man to follow him. The two of them stepped up to a window, away from Mei who was still outlining the next evening's agenda.

"We will leave here at five in the afternoon," Enishi said. "We will reach Nanjing after sunset. I've looked at the client's profile from Lei's ledger. They are foreigners from Europe, and the man who handles their weapons acquisition is called George. No last name."

"Is he their leader?" Jiao asked.

"He's the one that does the transactions with us. I don't know if he answers to someone else higher," Enishi said. "Their recent purchases are mostly rifles and pistols and judging from their orders, they have a large supply of ammunition."

"Wonderful," Jiao muttered.

"But these are foreigners from another land. They're not used to China and the underworld here so they rely on their weapons. Firearms always need time to reload, no matter how much ammunition they have. They can only fire twice in a minute, thrice at most, so I'm not that worried. Speed will work to our advantage."

"Should I prepare firearms as well?" Jiao asked.

Enishi thought about it. "No, it will only give us the same vulnerability we have seen in them. My sword will be enough. You have your crossbow?"

"It's a repeating crossbow," Jiao confirmed. "Fires one bolt a minute, a hundred yards range."

Enishi was not satisfied with that. "Drug your bolts."

"I always do," the other man answered with a malicious smile.

"And when we've killed them, we need to find where they put all of the assets they stole from us. We can still get our money back," Enishi said.

"It would be good to do that," Jiao agreed. "Have you looked at the finances?"

"The recent arms sales just put us to breakeven point when we consider the losses from the raids," he answered. "If we don't recover those, Ming will need to downsize his operations a bit. It's something I know he won't like to do, so we need to seize back what was taken from us."

"It's the people that we can't get back," Jiao complained. "I need manpower to get the drugs up and running again."

Enishi didn't say anything, knowing that the way things looked at the moment, they might have to forget the opium business for a while. He turned away from the window, checking to see if Kaoru was still playing with Yuan. "Talk it over with Mei," he merely said before walking to Kaoru's side.

Kaoru and Yuan both looked up as he approached them. Enishi narrowed his eyes as he saw the board. "Yuan, you'd better not be cheating," he warned.

Yuan held up his hands. "I'm not," he said. "But she gets so confused with the pieces."

Enishi stood at Kaoru's back, placing a hand on her shoulder. "Has he been beating you all night?" he asked.

"Yes," she admitted.

He grabbed a chair and sat down beside her. "Move over. I will avenge you," he said, challenging Yuan with a look. Yuan shrugged and proceeded to set the board again. Enishi arranged his pieces as Kaoru got up to refill his wine glass for him. They started another game as Mei excused herself to go check on Soong An and Cheng and Jiao said their goodbyes.

Half an hour later, Enishi had fulfilled his promise to Kaoru and beat Yuan. He sat back, satisfied, as Yuan put the game away.

"Still quite the strategist, I see," Ming said, coming over to witness the end of the game, Lei following behind him.

"Yet you still second guess my counsel," Enishi said pointedly.

Ming sat down in Yuan's seat after the silk trader bade them goodnight. "I am aware that we have different opinions on how to do business, but I do listen to what you have to say, especially now that the organization is in trouble."

Enishi set down his glass of wine. "Why did you really ask me to come back to Shanghai, Ming?"

Ming looked at Lei standing beside him. "Lei, leave us please. This is something I wish to discuss with Enishi alone."

Lei did not look surprised as he gave them a small bow and left the sitting room, closing the door behind him. Ming looked at Kaoru, but Enishi laid his arm across the back of Kaoru's chair as his eyes bored into Ming's, indicating that Kaoru was not to be sent away.

"It's no secret that our drugs division took a hit, some other organizations in the underworld heard about it," Ming said. "Of course the different syndicates in China know to respect one another's territories, so nobody has tried anything on us, but the hits made us look weak. It made me look weak."

 _You are weak,_ Enishi thought, but he chose not to open his mouth. Ming continued to talk. "Even our employees think that I cannot handle the organization anymore, and I fear a mutiny. I called you back because you have always been an icon of power, known by people inside and outside of the syndicate. I needed you to be present for the organization to save face."

"And to prevent mutiny," Enishi added. "What happens when I leave again?"

"I was hoping you would reconsider against leaving," Ming said. He gestured towards Kaoru. "I have welcomed Kaoru here, treated her well. I know you still have personal matters to finish, but why not come back here after? You can have a good life here, and if you worry that Kaoru won't be able to come with you, I think you already see that she can live here as well."

Enishi tipped his head to the side. It was a tempting offer. He could stay here, with Kaoru, and forget about Japan altogether. After all, if he were to finish his jinchuu, he would certainly ruin his and Kaoru's relationship. _I could just stay here with Kaoru and maintain the status quo._

He looked over at Kaoru and she met his eyes. Her face was calm, her eyes trusting. He sighed inwardly, "I promised Kaoru we would return to Tokyo together after I sort out my business here. I mean to keep it. I told you at the start, I was going to leave the organization eventually."

Ming sighed in frustration. "You are so hard-headed."

"As are you," Enishi replied, smiling thinly. He stood up, taking Kaoru's hand. "I will sort out your current problem, Ming, but the work that comes after… you have your other seniors for that. Good night."

He and Kaoru left the sitting room, walking home underneath the night sky. When they reached their house, Kaoru looked up at him concernedly.

"Are you sure it's all right for you to talk to Ming like that?" she asked.

"Yes," he said, removing his shoes as he prepared for bed. "He's the boss here, but he's right… I do carry a lot of weight in the organization."

"You were not tempted by Ming's suggestion earlier?"

He removed his glasses, placing them on the desk, and climbed into bed. "No, because I knew you wouldn't go along with it. You want to go back to Japan, don't you?"

"Yes," she said, changing into her nightgown. She came to the bed, settling herself comfortably beside him.

"I told you we will go back to Japan, so we will," he said simply.

"What will we do when we get there?"

"That is something I have to think about," he said, his tone implying that he did not want to talk about the matter any further. She took the hint, turning to her side and pillowing her cheek on the palm of one hand.

"Good night, Enishi," she said.

"Good night."

End of chapter.

* * *

Note: Here's the next installment. Thanks again for the reviews!


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Kaoru sat down on the grass, her back propped up against a large tree trunk as she watched Enishi put in some exercises before they had their lunch. A book on China's history lay open on her lap, but as soon as Enishi started doing his katas, she forgot all about reading and focused on him instead.

 _His resolve for jinchuu is wavering,_ she thought. She did not need to hear him speak the words. The tension in his muscles last night was obvious to her as she lay beside him. She didn't know if she was going to be thankful or relieved. What could possibly give him the peace that he needed? More than anything she wanted him to see his sister smile, for she thought that he deserved that much. _I need to get my hands on Tomoe's diary._

Her thoughts were interrupted when she saw Jiao exiting the shed at the edge of the practice area, carrying what appeared to be a large crossbow in his hand. The man with the scarred face watched Enishi briefly before walking towards her.

"Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on him," Jiao said, grinning at her.

She matched his smile. "He will be fine," she said confidently, knowing that Enishi's form was flawless. "But thank you."

He noticed her looking at his weapon. "This is a repeating crossbow," he said, showing it to her. "A magazine feeds the bolts automatically so it has a rapid rate of fire. Less accurate than a regular crossbow but in close quarters it can work well."

"It's my first time to see one," she said.

"It's an ancient Chinese weapon that has been refined through the centuries," he said proudly. "But Mei concocts wonderful poisons that make it even more deadly."

As if on cue, Mei appeared, carrying a basket. Kaoru was surprised to see Soong An behind her, walking with a pair of crutches. "I have the poison you requested," Mei said, patting the basket.

"Good," Jiao said. He looked at Soong An. "Glad to see you on your feet. Or foot."

"She has been in bed for two days, I wanted her to get her circulation going," Mei explained. "And I also wanted to see how well the splint I made holds her leg when she starts moving around." She set the basket on the ground and knelt down beside Soong An, feeling the splint with her fingers.

Soong An rested her crutches against the trunk of another tree and slid down to sit on the ground, her injured leg extended in front of her. Her pretty face was expressionless as she looked at the group bent over Jiao's crossbow and Mei's basket before turning her gaze on Enishi, who was still doing his exercises, unmindful of the newcomers.

"How are you," Kaoru ventured tentatively, reaching out to the other girl.

"As well as can be. Thank you for asking," she answered, her voice flat.

Kaoru bent her head, wondering if Soong An still felt strongly about Enishi, the way the Chinese girl was watching him practice. Mei took Jiao's bolts from him and laid them out on a tray she took out of her basket. She got a bottle of clear liquid and she began to douse the bolts with it. "Is that the poison?" she asked Mei.

"Yes, it slows down the body's nervous system until the heart stops beating," Mei said. "It takes an hour for the full effect, but it's supposed to cause loss of consciousness in a minute. No antidote, as far as I'm concerned."

Kaoru shuddered at the thought. "No antidote?"

"As far as anyone knows," the doctor confirmed. "There are other ways to counter it, but since it's my concoction, I'm the only one who knows," she finished with a grin. She wrapped the bolts up and gave them back to Jiao. "There you go Jiao. Just don't shoot yourself in the foot when I'm not around."

"I'll wait until you are," Jiao answered, hefting the crossbow in his hand and pretending to take aim with it.

"I'm serious," Mei muttered, packing up her stuff.

Lei suddenly appeared from behind one of the trees. He eyed Mei's basket suspiciously. "So everyone decides to have a picnic and not tell me about it," he said.

"You're welcome to it," Mei said, nodding at her basket.

Lei sat down next to her and looked inside. "What's this?"

"It's Mei's poison," Mei said.

Kaoru raised her eyebrows, and the doctor shrugged. "I don't have a name for it, so I call it Mei's poison."

Lei winked at Kaoru. "Her ingenuity always astounds me."

Kaoru laughed as Mei took her basket back, feeling relaxed amidst the light banter. Even Soong An had a small smile on her face. She watched Enishi pause in his exercises to throw them a curious look before continuing. _I wonder if he will feel jealous again,_ she thought mildly, realizing that she almost felt at home with most of Enishi's associates. Deciding not to take any chances, she excused herself from the group and stood up to go to him.

Enishi stopped in the middle of a swing and looked at her as she approached. "Everything all right?" he asked.

"Yes," she said, clasping her book in one hand. "Lei was just having a dig at Mei."

He let out a half chuckle as he took the towel she offered him. "He likes her."

"Oh?" Kaoru said. "What makes you say that?"

He shrugged. "I pay attention to a lot of details, Kaoru. Did you come out here to tell me something?"

She hesitated. "Well… I didn't want you to think I'm having too much fun with your friends, again."

"They're not my friends," he corrected her, his eyes glinting merrily. "And you don't have to worry about me." He reached out to grasp her waist at her ticklish spot, and Kaoru moved out of the way of his hand.

"Don't," she gasped as he caught her anyway. "Or your juniors will think you've gone soft."

"Don't you want to rub it in Soong An's face?" he asked her, still looking wicked.

She laughed, shaking her head. "You could be so terrible sometimes."

They made their way back to the group under the tree, Enishi still holding onto Kaoru's waist. As they sat down on the grass, Mei looked at him curiously. "Enishi, how's your back? Let me see those cuts."

"They're fine," he insisted. "How are things looking for tonight?"

"Oh, I've arranged for three carriages to take us to the restaurant," Mei said. "Father's usual escorts will also be there. It's a five-course meal that I ordered to be prepared. It's supposed to be good. What time are you leaving?"

"In three hours," Enishi said.

"Then I guess we'd better get to lunch, then," Mei said, standing up. She stepped over to help Soong An get on her feet.

They walked to the mansion, with Enishi and Kaoru lagging behind the others. "I need your help with fresh bandages before I go," he said.

She nodded. "After lunch?"

"Yes," he said.

"Are you worried about going out tonight?"

He scoffed. "They're a bunch of pansies with guns. Compared to that time I went after the Ryukage, this is going to be easy."

"I'll believe you," she said, pushing her usual worries away.

Two hours later, though, as she was wrapping a fresh roll of bandages around his torso, her fears came back. She said nothing, but he noticed the downward pout of her mouth as she tied his bandage in place.

"Don't worry," he said as he stood up to put on his jacket. "This will be the last time."

"The last time?" she repeated.

He nodded, checking his watou before securing it in its sheath. "After this, I'm quitting the syndicate and I'm just going to be an ordinary, boring house husband for you."

It seemed that the words had slipped out before he thought about it, for he caught himself and looked at her, still sitting on the bed. He bent his head, adjusting his glasses, before turning to the door. As he turned away, Kaoru caught the faint flush on his cheeks.

 _Enishi is blushing,_ she thought, a slow smile spreading on her face. _That arrogant man is actually blushing._ She stood up, reaching out to catch his hand before he stepped out.

"Enishi," she said, pulling him to her. She put her hands on either side of his face. "You will never be ordinary, or boring, and I don't think you could be confined to the house. As for the husband bit… I refuse to be proposed to in such an offhand manner. Even a sack of potatoes deserves better than that."

* * *

The ride to Nanjing was silent, which gave Enishi the opportunity to think on what had just transpired with Kaoru right before he left her. He shook his head at himself for letting himself speak without actually thinking about it first. He had been with Kaoru for almost two months, and in an unguarded moment he had somehow gotten it into his head that they would be together for years without actually asking her about it. Fortunately for him, she had quickly shoved him towards the door without waiting any further response from him.

"What's the plan when we get there?" Jiao asked, jarring Enishi back into the present.

"Just go in and kill everyone," he answered. "I want to do this quickly, Jiao. And mind where you point your crossbow later."

"Yes boss," Jiao said. "Are we going in together or are we going for a pincer attack?"

"Together," Enishi said, not wanting to be on the other side of Jiao's poisoned bolts. "You go in with your crossbow and I will cover you when you need to reload. Take down as many as you can before your bolts run out."

They reached the address, which turned out to be a compound surrounded by a high stone wall. The entrance was a wooden gate guarded by to men armed with rifles. Jiao did not need any encouragement, he fired several accurate shots as he was dismounting, hitting both men several times on their chests. Enishi dismounted as well just as the two guards fell to the ground. He unsheathed his watou, charging at the door with a powerful lunge that splintered the thick wood.

Jiao clicked his tongue as he followed Enishi inside. "What happened to 'do it covertly'? Ming will kill us if he knew we entered so forcefully without the evidence he wanted us to get."

"I don't need evidence," Enishi said, his eyes quickly sweeping the front yard as he heard an alarm being sounded. It was a large compound, but not as large as the one behind their brothel. There were buildings scattered throughout the area, most of them two or three stories high, built in western style. The buildings were identical, giving him no clue as to where their leader might be. They would have to check each structure.

"I will sweep this building, you sweep that," Enishi said, pointing Jiao to a building on the opposite side of the compound.

"What happened to you covering for me when I need to reload," Jiao complained.

"Deal with it," Enishi shot back, already on his way to the first building. He kicked open the door and walked in, stretching his senses. He registered four people in the room, all of them rising to respond to the alarm. They had barely gotten ahold of their rifles when Enishi cut through them like a tornado, his watou singing through the air as he expertly delivered his lethal attacks. Three bodies fell to the floor, lifeless, while the fourth man struggled against a table, holding his hand across a deep cut along his side. He was the one Enishi purposefully left alive.

"Where is George?" he asked in a no-nonsense voice, grabbing the man's rifle and breaking it over his knee. No sense in leaving any weapons that can be used against them later on. Besides, he had seen the ledger, and the weapons have already been paid in full.

The man shook his head frantically, and Enishi almost sighed at the stubbornness. He took the broken rifle in his hand and shoved the tip into the man's open wound as he held the man up by his collar. The man screamed in pain, and Enishi paused. "Tell me what I want to know," he said calmly.

He shoved the rifle into the man's side again and the man screamed. "In the main house," he gasped as Enishi stopped his torture for the second time.

"Which is where?" he demanded.

"Blue door," the man whispered, sweat lining his forehead.

"Finally," Enishi muttered, dropping the man. Before the man could fall to the floor, Enishi pivoted on one foot, beheading him. There was no use leaving any of them alive.

He swept the rest of the building, climbing up to the second floor to find it empty. He quickly descended the stairs and when he got outside, he found Jiao exiting the other house. There were five guards running towards them, and as soon as the guards spotted them, they stopped to take aim with their rifles.

Enishi waited a moment, and when he heard the crack of the rifle firing, he moved, relying on his superhuman speed. He turned to evade the path of the bullets and sprinted to the guards, knowing that it would take them at least five seconds to reload. He cut them down, one after another, flicking his sword after dealing with the last man to get rid of the blood.

"Their boss is at the house with the blue door," Enishi said as Jiao joined him. "How many men did you kill at the first building?"

"Eight," Jiao answered. He checked to see that his crossbow was loaded properly. "You?"

"Four, then five out here," Enishi said, doing a quick count. "Too few. I'm going after the boss. Watch my back."

He strode over to the main building, again forcing the door open. He found two guards inside and he barely dodged a bullet fired by one of the guards closer to the door. With a low growl, he disposed of them quickly with a clean attack. Jiao followed after him, stationing himself at the door, facing outward, to prevent any reinforcements from following them inside.

Enishi swept the first floor of the house, going from room to room. The sitting room had two guards, and he did not wait for them to fire. He launched into his Senran Tousei, effectively slashing at both of them and destroying most of the furniture in the process. He kept moving, searching every room on the first floor carefully before deciding to move up to the second floor.

The second floor's hallway was littered with about five guards. Enishi ducked behind a corner, realizing that the guards already had their rifles aimed and ready. He was just debating with himself whether he would be fast enough to dodge in such a narrow space when Jiao came up, holding his crossbow ready. Enishi jerked his head towards the corner, and Jiao quickly fired blindly, expending at least fifteen bolts.

The pair of them waited for a full five seconds before cautiously peeking around the corner. All five of the guards were down on the floor, each of them pierced by at least one poisoned bolt.

Jiao grinned. "That was a blind shot."

"Yes, it appears it doesn't take much talent to use a crossbow," Enishi muttered.

"I still saved you from getting a few bullet holes."

"I could have dodged them just fine," Enishi said. He led the way down the hall, his senses telling him that there were no longer any more guards to encounter.

He opened the first door to see that it was the study. He expected it to be more heavily guarded, but it was empty save for a man cowering underneath his desk. Enishi raised an eyebrow at Jiao. "I presume that's George," he said, recognizing the man from the bidding a few weeks ago.

He stepped over to the desk, grabbing the man by his shirt and throwing him on top of the table. "You were the one behind the attacks on the syndicate," he said, his steely voice not giving any room for doubt. "Why?"

The man was a foreigner, judging by his light hair and blue eyes. Enishi paused and repeated the question in English. "You may as well speak, because I am not leaving this room without any answers," he said matter-of-factly.

"The opium market," the man said, his eyeing Enishi's blood-stained clothes with fear. "We wanted to control it."

Enishi's eyes narrowed. "How did you know where our drug dens are?"

"Information from one of you," George said, talking rapidly now that he seemed to figure out that Enishi's temper might be diverted from him if he knew there was a traitor. "From Wu Heishin."

Enishi's eyebrows shot up. "Heishin is set to inherit my shares in the organization. Why would he destabilize it?" The idea seemed illogical to him, yet his temper threatened to go into a rage as he realized that George would not have known of Heishin if they had not conducted business personally. The pieces started to fall in place in his mind. The ninjas from Japan. Heishin was the middleman. He started to move on the organization, sending the ninjas, just after Enishi had left for Japan.

"I don't know, but it was all his plan," George insisted, feeling bolder now that Enishi's anger was directed at somebody else.

"The pig," Enishi muttered. He threw George to Jiao. "You take care of him. I will deal with Heishin." It seems the syndicate's problem would be resolved in Japan, not in Shanghai.

He was already thinking of the quickest ship to take him to Japan when his eyes fell on the papers littering the desk. It was a map of the syndicate's compound, with markings that accurately indicated where each guard post was. Along with the map were a few sketches of the seniors. He saw his face, and Ming's. _Lei, Soong An, Mei… everyone,_ he thought, leafing through the papers. It was a hit list.

"Where are the rest of your men?" he asked George, his voice now taking on a dangerous tone. "This compound seems pretty empty considering you bought over a hundred rifles and pistols from us the past month." He already had an idea, and though his face remained neutral, his stomach was already sinking with the thought that Kaoru would be in the company of assassination targets that night.

George's fear returned at hearing Enishi's tone. "Ambush," he said finally, giving up. "At your compound tonight."

Enishi swore as he grabbed George and bashed his head onto a coffee table. He took his sword and was about to run out of the study when Jiao stopped him. "Wait, Enishi, we need to recover the assets we lost. The records must be somewhere here in the study."

"You do that," he said to Jiao, already halfway out the door. Once out of the house, he broke into a flat out run, leaping onto his horse outside the compound gates. He spurred the horse into a gallop, pushing it to the limit. He must have been at the compound for a full hour. Kaoru and the others must only be starting their dinner. The ambush would not take place in public, so it would have to be when they would be on their way home. Enishi hoped that Mei had prepared a long program for her father's birthday.

* * *

Note: Hello lovelies. I apologize for the long update intervals. I'm on holiday and I couldn't very well ignore my fiancé and hunch over my laptop could I? :) Thanks again for continuing to read this story. Things are getting exciting. Appreciate the reviews! See you again in a bit.


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